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View of the entrance of a district court. © Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
The judiciary is on the verge of an upheaval: a number of judges and public prosecutors are retiring. Thousands of junior staff are needed.
Berlin – Despite the increasingly poor pay than in companies or law firms, courts and public prosecutors are in demand with young lawyers. This is the conclusion reached by the “Deutsche Richterzeitung” after a survey in May and June of the judicial administrations of the federal states. Accordingly, the applicant situation is good and exceeds the number of new hires. The newspaper is published by the German Association of Judges.
“For many applicants, the independence and the relatively free work organization in the judge’s profession are still important pluses that speak for the way to the judiciary,” said the federal manager of the German Association of Judges, Sven Rebehn, the German Press Agency.
Justice must remain “competitive and attractive”.
According to the federal states, around 6,750 lawyers have been newly hired in the past five years. At the top was the most populous North Rhine-Westphalia with 1588 people. According to the survey results, in the past five years there have also been at least two applicants for one job in federal states that have to attract a comparatively large number of people interested in the judiciary every year. In Lower Saxony the ratio was even four to one.
For example, the Ministry of Justice in Hanover recorded 381 applications for 2022, and 108 positions were filled. According to the Richter newspaper, Berlin states a ratio of three to one in the survey. In 2022, 62 judges and public prosecutors were hired in the capital – 163 lawyers had applied.
“So far, all federal states have succeeded in recruiting well-qualified young people for the judiciary and in filling available positions quickly,” said Rebehn. However, the judiciary must remain “competitive and attractive for the best minds”. With a view to top salaries in companies and law firms, good pay is important, he emphasized. “With a view to the wave of retirements, the EU again called for the raising of judges’ salaries to an appropriate level in its 2023 rule of law report for Germany.”
Personnel upheaval
Due to the upcoming retirements, the judiciary is facing a personnel upheaval. According to Rebehn, the number of retirees will increase significantly from this year onwards, especially in the eastern German federal states and in Berlin. Another problem is that criminal courts and public prosecutor’s offices are often already understaffed – but the demands are growing. From the point of view of the judges’ association, more jobs must therefore be created. There is currently a shortage of around 1,000 lawyers in this area nationwide.
There seems to be enough interest in the job: According to a survey, the number of passed second state examinations has increased or remained stable in most federal states over the past five years – only in Berlin and Brandenburg was this not the case. There was a particularly strong increase in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the number of completed traineeships almost tripled to 101 (2018: 37). According to the ministry, it has almost doubled in Saxony-Anhalt (2022: 102; 2018: 55).
However, according to the administration of justice, there are problems in filling positions outside of the profession of judge or public prosecutor. In order to have enough people for the service area, the federal states are increasingly hiring career changers, lowering the grade requirements and tempting with higher pay or more flexible working hours. dpa