The other day I was reading my Scottish Government App and saw that someone who holds a position called the Lord President was resigning and a new Lord President would have to be appointed. It turns out the Lord President is the head of the Scottish Judiciary. He or she runs the whole Scottish legal system . And the Lord President is paid almost $400,000.00 a year.
I’m not sure if we in North Carolina have a direct equivalent position to Lord President. But the head of our Judiciary is The Chief Justice of The Supreme Court. The last I checked, District Court Judges were paid about $110,000.00 a year, Superior Court judges about $115,000.00, and appellate judges some amount somewhat more than these — including the Chief Justice.
So I decided to have a look at judges’ salaries in England and Scotland. These two countries’ legal systems are particularly interesting to look at from our North Carolina perspective; England gave us our laws, Scotland our procedures and traditions (or something like that). Anyway, English and Scottish judges are paid at least twice what their equivalents are paid in North Carolina. Twice. These well-paid English and Scottish judges are also the cream of their legal communities’ crops — they are the best of the best.
At the risk of violating the rule that disallows lawyers from bringing disrepute to the Judiciary, North Carolina judges are woefully underpaid.
