Judicial Compensation in New York: A National Perspective, Report

22 JUDICIAL COMPENSATION IN NEW YORK: A NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
There are important economic implications from a Judiciary that is underpaid and
demoralized through eight and a half years of unchanged compensation levels. Many
of the State’s corporate executives and business associations, like the Partnership for
New York City and the New York State Business Council, will be meeting with Chief
Judge Kaye on June 12, 2007 in an effort to galvanize support for the Judiciary’s pay
reform efforts.
C. JUDICIAL INDEPENDENCE
Inadequate judicial salaries suggest potential harm to judicial independence and to the
public’s perception of our justice system. The average citizen should have confidence
that judges will decide cases with complete independence — free of any hint that decisions
are influenced by judicial interest in accommodating governors and legislators
who hold judges’ financial wherewithal in their hands. But this confidence is hard to
preserve:
• Where judges are forced, in a very public manner, to plead with elected officials for
cost-of-living adjustments.
• Where, despite wide agreement that judges need and deserve an increase, judicial
salary issues are entangled in disputes over entirely unrelated issues.
• Where legislators frequently are very vocal in publicly criticizing judges for their
decisions. 50
The situation in New York clearly has the potential to adversely affect the public’s confidence
in the independence of the Judiciary.
D. COMPARATIVE WORTH
We note additionally that compensation should bear some reasonable relationship
to the value of a particular occupation. As one commentator has put it, “judges are
worth much more, by any measure of social utility, than most law partners, but they
are paid far less.” 51 Judges’ decisions not only determine the outcomes of particular
disputes affecting the lives of individuals but also influence life in our communities,
our economic well-being and the nature of society for years to come. Given the high
social value of dispensing justice, providing New Yorkers with the best possible justice
system is at the very heart of the Federal and State Constitutions — ensuring justice
for all.
50 As was recently reported in the popular press, a member of the Legislature accused the State’s highest court of deciding
a case (unrelated to judicial compensation), in a manner calculated not to “alienate legislative leaders” and jeopardize
a potential salary increase. Lovett, “Pol Slaps Top Court on Ethics,” New York Post, May 11, 2007, at 12.
51 Steven Lubet, Judging Pay, The American Lawyer, March 3, 2003.