Recorder (judge) - Formal Appointments of Titular and Honorific Recorders

Formal Appointments of Titular and Honorific Recorders

With the major changes in both local government and the courts services through implementation of the Courts Act 1971 and the establishment of the Crown Court for England and Wales, the councils of boroughs have had the power to appoint a Circuit Judge or a Recorder of the Crown Court as Honorary Recorder of the borough concerned. The Crown Court is a single court sitting at numerous locations throughout England and Wales. At each Crown Court centre, a particular judge is appointed "Resident Judge", leads the team of judges who sit there and provides the essential link between the judiciary and the administration

In the late twentieth century, the role has become either:

• titular, automatically the title of the senior Judge of a borough coincident with an ancient Assize. In the larger city court centres, the Resident Judge is usually a Senior Circuit Judge who is recruited and appointed specifically to that post. Those cities continue to elect the Resident Judge as Honorary Recorder. Such a judge holds office as Resident Judge and (if so elected) as Honorary Recorder until his retirement from the post, or
• honorific, granted by a local authority to the senior Resident Judge of its principal Crown Court. In the many smaller towns and cities where the Resident Judge is not a Senior Circuit Judge, the position is different. The Resident Judge is deployed specifically to that post by the Lord Chief Justice (with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor) from the ranks of the circuit bench, and holds office as Resident Judge for a set period, normally four years (renewable). It is hoped that when such a city or borough council resolves to elect its Resident Judge as Honorary Recorder, it will expressly make that appointment for no longer than the duration of the judge’s tenure of the post of Resident Judge.

The protocol of the use of the title is that it is customary for an Honorary Recorder, when sitting in the Crown Court in the city or town where he holds that office, to be described as such in the published court lists. This should not be done, however, when the judge is sitting in the Crown Court in another city or town, whether or not that city or town has an Honorary Recorder of its own.

The Dress rule is that where those Honorary Recorders who are also Senior Circuit Judges are authorised by the Lord Chief Justice to wear red robes when sitting in court. These robes are based on the design of the robes worn by judges of the County Courts, but in red and black. They were designed for the Recorders of Manchester and Liverpool when Crown Courts were established in those cities in 1956, many years before the establishment of the Crown Court for England and Wales by the Act of 1971. The right to wear them in court was extended in the 1980s to the other Senior Circuit Judges appointed as Honorary Recorders, but has not been extended to those who are not Senior Circuit Judges. Accordingly, when sitting in court. Honorary Recorders who are not Senior Circuit Judges continue to wear the normal robes of a Circuit Judge sitting in the Crown Court.

Boroughs which had a power by Charter to appoint a Recorder before 1971, but which had no Quarter Sessions, have a preserved right to appoint anyone, including non-lawyers, as Honorary Recorder, but an Honorary Recorder who is not a judge cannot sit as a judge in court or exercise any judicial functions.

This variety of Recorder should not be confused with those Recorders who are solicitors and barristers who are appointed as fee-paid part-time judges.