From the President

佐治亚律师杂志
2024年2月，卷. 29, No. 4

为乔治亚州法官提供竞争性、一致性的薪酬

I have always said that my favorite job was serving as a trial judge in the State Court of DeKalb County. 但在2011年，由于经济原因，我面临着一个关键的决定. The stock market crash of a few years earlier had decimated my savings, and I no longer could fund my children’s private school tuition on my judge’s salary.

I had to make a difficult choice: leave a job that I loved or remove my children from the only school they had ever known. 对我来说，这是一个简单的决定. 我辞去了法官的职务，回到了私人律师事务所, 我可以过上更好的生活吗.

I am not the only judge in Georgia who has faced the difficult choice to leave the bench—far from it. 许多法学家因为经济原因离开了法官席, and the corollary to that is that many successful attorneys in our state, 尤其是在亚特兰大地区, 不要仅仅因为我们的工资不够高而成为法官吗.

希望这种情况在不久的将来会有所改变. 在格鲁吉亚大会本届会议期间, legislation that would reform our state’s judicial compensation system in a comprehensive manner and significantly improve judicial salaries is under consideration. HB 947，由Rep. 罗伯·莱弗里特(R-Elberton), an attorney, was approved overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives and as of Feb. 23项正在参议院拨款委员会接受审查.

这种立法上的关注当然是受欢迎的，也是早就应该得到的. A 2016 report found that Georgia’s judicial compensation system was “riddled with anomalies and inconsistencies,” and a December 2022 report found that many inconsistencies and disparities persist. 和其他州相比, Georgia judicial salaries presently rank 32nd in the United States for Supreme Court justices, 23rd for 上诉法院法官 and 49th for the state-funded portion of compensation to Superior Court judges (ahead of only West Virginia).

值得注意的是格鲁吉亚的整个司法预算, 按2024财政年度分配, 只占0.占州政府开支的6%.

I serve on the Judicial Council of Georgia’s Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Salaries and Supplements. 司法委员会, under the leadership of Presiding Justice Nels Peterson and Justice Charlie Bethel of the Supreme Court of Georgia, has been instrumental in working with Leverett and other legislative leaders on the proposal, 如果它成为法律呢, would:

• Address the substantial and longstanding disparity in the compensation of Superior Court judges;
• Provide stability and predictability to the compensation of state-paid judges;
• Address the stagnation in judicial pay; and
• 考虑到生活成本的差异.

在改革模式下, Georgia’s national salary rankings would improve to 15th for Supreme Court justices and 12th for 上诉法院法官. After local supplements that vary wildly among judicial circuits across the state, some Superior Court judges’ salaries in Georgia rank 45th nationally, 而其他国家的排名则高达第五. The reform model would improve the lowest ranking from 45th to 14th; the highest ranking would remain at fifth in the nation with an optional locality pay, 哪一个上限是国家工资的10%.

对司法薪酬改革的必要性有更广泛的看法, I reached out to three other former Georgia jurists who left the bench for the same reason I did. I am thankful to former Supreme Court of Georgia Chief Justice Harold Melton, former Supreme Court of Georgia Justice Keith Blackwell and former DeKalb County State Court Judge Dax López for sharing their individual perspectives.

他曾在前州长设立的委员会任职. Nathan Deal and overseen by the late then-Chief Justice Harris Hines nearly a decade ago, Melton noted that the current legislative effort is actually years in the making.

“There was a time when it was harder to make people believe that an increase in pay was necessary to maintain and recruit a good pool of judges to select from,” said Melton, 现在是亚特兰大Troutman Pepper公司的合伙人. “但我认为，我们现在实际上正处于这种情况下. Obviously, judges go into that work knowing that there is a substantial discount for public service. 不过，差距相当大. 这个折扣正变得越来越大.”

Melton served on the Court for 16 years before his move into private practice, a time when he said he was “staring at college tuition” for his children. He said the dual challenge of retaining and replacing experienced judges should be of concern to all Georgians.

“You do face the prospect of judges leaving after 10 or 15 years,” he said. “如果你想让法官过了这一关, 可能需要某种形式的经济激励. It really is more acute with the appellate court judges because you are more likely to be in the Atlanta metro area, either because that’s where you live or because that’s where you’re traveling to on a regular basis and you have to have some form of housing if you’re substantially away from the Atlanta area, 比梅肯更远, perhaps.”

Reducing the inconsistency in local supplements for Superior Court judges among Georgia’s judicial circuits and how that impacts the pay difference between trial court judges and statewide appellate court judges is also a key component of reform, Melton said.

“The appellate judges don’t have the supplements that the metro circuits have, so that the supplements bring the trial court judges well above what the appellate court judges are making,” he noted. “I think that is a very important system to consider how it can be retooled. 这确实是一个杂乱无章的系统，因为它现在存在, the net effect being that probably at least one-third of the trial court judges make more than the appellate court judges. It takes some real effort to try to right-size salary structure and create a structure going forward that makes sense.”

Melton said he is glad the Legislature is addressing the judicial pay issue. “法官赚得足够多，人们不会为他们感到难过, and attention typically goes toward teachers first and maybe in today’s budgetary environment, 狱警之类的人,” he said. “The circumstances separating judges and correctional officers are completely different.

“但是你们优秀的法官有其他选择. 我们希望法官们能做些别的事情. 如果他们能做点别的事情, 他们很有可能至少赚两倍, easily. And for many of them, three or four times as much is not too far outside the realm of possibility. 法官们并没有要求立法机关支付他们两倍的薪水. But there are some things I think judges want to be able to provide for that a pay raise would be very helpful toward.”

Blackwell, a judge on the Court of Appeals of Georgia prior to serving as a Supreme Court justice from 2012 through 2020 and who is now senior counsel with Alston & 亚特兰大的鸟, amplified the differences between private practice income potential and that for members of the judiciary. He also expressed the need for legislative provisions that would “establish a framework ... 防止司法赔偿因通货膨胀而减少.”

“No one enters—or at least, no one ought to enter—public service to become wealthy,” he said. “公共服务不可避免地涉及个人牺牲, 尽管做出了牺牲, we are fortunate to have had many talented lawyers offer themselves for judicial service in Georgia. But there are limits to how much personal sacrifice we should expect of our judges. If we want to continue to attract talented men and women to judicial service—and to keep them there—we have to pay them a comparatively fair wage in the context of the legal market. That first-year associates at Atlanta law firms are now paid substantially more than our appellate judges is just wrong, 而且这也是留住优秀法官的障碍.”

Blackwell added, “It is not enough, however, to give our judges a one-time raise. 展望未来, judicial compensation must keep pace with increases in the costs of living, 在乔治亚州, 历史上没有. For instance, in my 10 years of judicial service at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, 我的实际年薪减少了将近20美元,000. [资料来源:美国劳工统计局的CPI通胀计算器.年复一年, 由于通货膨胀，我的司法工资的购买力下降了, 当我的孩子们进入高中时, 开始开车，开始看大学, the continuing diminution of my compensation became an increasingly apparent problem for my family. It eventually led me to retire from judicial service and return to the private practice of law. I am quite certain that my story is not a unique one among Georgia judges.”

López, 现在是我在亚特兰大德尔坎波·格雷森律师事务所López的律师合伙人, 同意梅尔顿和布莱克威尔法官的意见. “While having served the people of DeKalb as a judge for 11 years was one of the greatest honors of my professional life, the financial realities of being a public servant prevented me from continuing to serve,” he said. “我有四个孩子, 当我的大孩子们快到上大学的年龄时, it became apparent that I could no longer continue to meet my obligations on my judicial pay, particularly when I knew I could make substantially more in the private sector. 我的故事并不独特. Most of the judges I know who have left the bench left not because they wanted to, but because they had to do what made financial sense for their families.”

Adequate compensation for the leaders of Georgia’s judicial branch is sound and necessary public policy. “How are we to attract the best and brightest in our profession to serve in one of the most important roles in government if we don’t pay them what they need to take care of their families?” López asked. “当法官就是当公仆. 这是一种召唤，也是一种牺牲. I was happy to serve for 11 years, and my family was happy to make that sacrifice for that time. However, if we want to retain good judges, this is an issue that must be addressed. I do not expect judges to be paid like a private sector partner at a major law firm. 但法官至少应该像中级律师那样做.”

从广义上看, HB 947规定了最高法院法官的最高工资, 上诉法院法官, 州商业法院法官和高等法院法官. Specific salaries in each annual budget would be set through the General Assembly’s regular appropriations process.

The maximum salary structure for judges at each court level would be calculated at a formula tied each year to the salary of U.S. District Court judges in the Northern District of Georgia from two years prior. The maximum annual salary for Supreme Court justices would be 100% of that number or currently $223,400; for 上诉法院法官, 95% or $212,230; for the State-wide Business Court judge, 92% or $205,528; and for Superior Court judges, 90% or $201,060. The current local supplement system for Superior Court judges would be largely replaced by a “locality pay” addition of 10% of the judge’s salary, bringing the total pay for Superior Court judges to a maximum of $221,166.

The proposal also provides for an “opt-in” requirement for current judges, who would have until Oct. 1 to opt in by filing a written notice with the Council of Superior Court Judges and the governing authority of each county in the circuit. 如果他们没有在截止日期前完成，他们将继续使用现行制度.

I commend the House of Representatives for approving HB 947 in a bipartisan vote of 154-13 on Feb. 15. I hope the Senate will do the same or pass a version that both sides can agree to and Gov. 布莱恩·坎普可以签署成为法律. The state of Georgia needs a compensation system that pays our judges competitively and consistently for the vital and increasingly difficult duties they fulfill in our system of justice.