Recorder of Belfast
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The Recorder of Belfast is one of the two senior
County Court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...
judges of
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
known as Recorders, the other being the Recorder of Derry. The County Court judges in Northern Ireland are senior judicial officers, hearing civil actions, consumer claims, and appeals from magistrates' courts. They are called Family Care Centre judges when hearing appeals from the family proceedings courts and cases under the Children (Northern Ireland) Order 1995. The Recorder of Belfast is deemed to be the Senior County Court Judge in the Province.


History

In 1876, the Recorder of Belfast sat for eight sessions a year, plus four in the
Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...
for
County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...
. In the House of Commons on 2 March 1882
Joseph Biggar Joseph Gillis Biggar (c. 1828 – 19 February 1890), commonly known as Joe BiggarD.D. Sheehan, Ireland Since Parnell', London: Daniel O'Connor, 1921. or J. G. Biggar, was an Irish nationalist politician from Belfast. He served as an MP in the H ...
asked the
Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...
, W. M. Johnson, whether he was aware that the Recorder of Belfast was paid to act at elections as assessor to the chairman of Harbour Commissioners in Belfast, and whether that was contrary to the County Officers and Courts Act 1877. Johnson replied that the Recorder of Belfast was appointed to the role of assessor long before the 1877 act was enacted and was not affected by its Section 92. The title of Recorder of Belfast was confirmed by Section 102 of the County Courts Act (Northern Ireland) 1959, which provides that "The judge, or (if more than one) one of the judges, assigned to the division which is or includes— (a) the area of the city of Belfast shall be styled the Recorder of Belfast". In 2005, for the first time, a solicitor, Thomas Burgess, was appointed as Recorder, and with effect from April 2006 a new dimension was added to the Recorder's role by the Justice Act 2004, making him the Presiding Judge with responsibility for the County Courts."Judge Burgess — Reflections from the Bench" i
The Writ, Issue 178
dated October 2006 at lawsoc-ni.org, accessed 8 March 2019
The Recorder has the civic position of Second Citizen of Belfast, after the Lord Mayor.


Salary

It was reported in June 2010 that with an annual salary of £149, 631, the Recorder was paid more than the
British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
. This compared with £172,753 paid to each of the nine Justices of the
High Court of Northern Ireland The courts of Northern Ireland are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in Northern Ireland: they are constituted and governed by the law of Northern Ireland. Prior to the partition of Ireland, Northern Ir ...
. In 2010 the Recorder's salary had been confirmed at 108 per cent of the Series 5 salary, paid to other County Court judges, with the Review Body on Senior Salaries noting that the office-holder was the Presiding Judge of the County Court and also heard non-jury, Diplock trials dealing with terrorism-related offences.


List of Recorders

:''This list is incomplete'' *1873 to 1884: John Hastings Otway QC (1808–1884) *1884 to 1887: David Ross QC (died 1887) *1899 to 1909: Henry Fitzgibbon KC (1824–1909) *1909 to 1910: James Johnston Shaw KC LLD (1845–1910) *1911 to 1919: John Walker Craig KC (died 1926) *1919 to 1921: Charles Louis Matheson KC *1921 to 1927: Daniel Martin Wilson KC (1862–1932) *1927: Thomas H. Maxwell KC (acting) *1927 to 1941: Herbert Marshall Thompson KC (died 1945) *1941 to 1943: Arthur Black KC (1888–1968)Biographies of Members of the Northern Ireland House of Commons
at election.demon.co.uk, accessed 9 January 2018
*1952 to 1959: Bernard Joshua Fox QC *1956 (acting): Charles Stewart QC''The Belfast Gazette'' (1956), p. 107: "His Excellency the Governor of Northern Ireland has been pleased to appoint, under the Civil Bill Courts (Ireland) Act, 1851, Charles Stewart, Esq., Q.C., to do and execute the duties of Recorder of Belfast during the absence of the Recorder , His Honour Bernard J. Fox, Q.C." *1959 to 1978:
Walter Topping Walter William Buchanan Topping (1908–26 July 1978) was a unionist politician in Northern Ireland. Topping studied at the Rossall School and Queen's University Belfast, before becoming a barrister in 1930. During World War II, he served ...
(1908–1978) *1978 to 1982: James Alexander Brown TD QC''Who Was Who 1996–2000'' (London: A. & C. Black, 2001), p. 72 *1982 to 1984: Eoin Higgins (1927–1993) *1984 to 1997: Frank Russell QC (1925–2013) *2005 to 2012: Thomas Burgess, solicitor *2012 to date: David McFarland QC


Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Recorder Belfast History of Northern Ireland Lists of Irish people Belfast Recorder (judge)