Guest article by Dr. Charlotte Rau, LL.M and Dr. Christine SchröderReading time: 6 minutes
As an employer, the state has a reputation for enabling the compatibility of family and work like few others. Describe whether this is actually the case Charlotte Rau and Christine Schröder.
While the work-life balance is repeatedly criticized by large law firms, the judiciary – officially certified by the Hessian Minister of the Interior and for Sport – impresses with its family-friendliness. Colleagues with three or more children are not uncommon. The announcement of offspring is happily welcomed, even if it happens again, maternity leave is a given, parental leave is granted as requested, and returning part-time or full-time is at the colleague’s discretion. According to Section 7a of the Hessian Judges Act, a judge may work part-time upon request if he looks after at least one child under the age of 18, up to half of the regular service. The regulation, which is similarly standardized in all other federal states, applies accordingly to public prosecutors. But something is also happening in the legal profession: If you work part-time, you are no longer an isolated case.
In addition to the flexible working and part-time models, there are other family-friendly offers in everyday professional life in the judiciary: the increasing opportunities to work decentralized and mobile with increasing digitalization, judicial kindergartens, emergency childcare offers, reimbursement of childcare costs for further training, opportunities for time off work for family reasons, as well as external personnel consulting offers. Parents now also receive considerable surcharges per child. In Hesse, for example, it is around 240 euros each for the first and second child, and from the third child onwards there is a comparatively higher surcharge of around 730 euros. In 2020, the Federal Constitutional Court decided that judges and prosecutors with more than three children in North Rhine-Westphalia earn too little and set out concrete rules. The additional benefits from the third child onwards must be at least 15 percent above basic social security. Hesse has also significantly increased family allowances in 2023.
But how does the promised family-friendliness of the judiciary make itself felt in everyday work – and what isn’t going so well yet?
Part-time working life
If you decide to work part-time, not much will change in your everyday working life. At best, you work less, but the content is not different than full-time. If the number of procedures to be processed is reduced, the number of procedures to be processed will be adjusted as a percentage; this does not involve any change in content.
Due to judicial independence, working hours are flexible and individuals are free to decide when and where they conduct their proceedings, provided that this does not require presence in the courtroom. There are no fixed number of hours or working hours. This flexibility makes it possible, in an emergency, to leave one’s own desk and, exceptionally, the judge’s bench on an ad hoc basis, to postpone the hearing and to look after one’s own child without disapproving glances or comments.
You work less part-time – right?
If the judge works part-time after the birth, the monetary losses and their compensation can be calculated down to the cent through the family allowance; for example, if the judge works part-time, the basic salary is halved. However, since there are no specified number of hours, the reduction in work force cannot be quantified in weekly hours, but rather in relation to full-time colleagues. And this is only possible based on the number of procedures to be processed, so in part-time work you get fewer procedures. But that doesn’t always mean less work. In each individual case, it depends on how extensive the files are, which and how many legal problems you have to deal with and how much time you need for preparation and meetings.
In the best case, the workload decreases to the desired extent as the number of files to be processed increases. In the worst case scenario – for example due to representations, waves of lawsuits, major proceedings – the workload remains temporarily too high or does not correspond to the reduction that has occurred. Questions may then arise for the individual as to how they deal with the pressure to get things done, whether unpaid overtime is worked or their own demands on the legal depth of a decision are reduced. Experience has shown that such peak loads, if they occur at all, are balanced out over the duration of part-time work. Questions that can affect both part-time and full-time employees include how to care for a sick child while that parent is on the bench, or whether to give up a neat, tidy department in favor of a sibling. These are questions that parents in almost all legal professions certainly ask themselves in a different form. But they show that even the family-friendly Lady Justice can’t get by without being harsh from time to time.
There is also a lot of catching up to do, particularly when it comes to digitalization. If the child is sick and you leave work hastily, it must be ensured that all technical requirements are in place to be able to work as effectively as possible alongside or after caring for the sick child. Otherwise, it is necessary to take paper files with you. However, with the widespread introduction of electronic files, this problem will be resolved in the foreseeable future. From 2026 at the latest, courts and public prosecutors will have to keep all newly created files electronically.
Children as a brake on your career?
Of course, a crucial question is what influence children, parental leave and part-time work have on your career. Children play a role in career paths in the judiciary – but not a permanently decisive one.
You are usually appointed for life after five years at the latest, as stipulated in Section 12 of the German Judges Act (DRiG). Anyone who takes maternity leave and/or parental leave as an assessor during the probationary period must be prepared for the fact that this may delay their appointment for life. However, working part-time has no impact on the length of the probationary period. Anyone who works in the judiciary with 50 percent of their workforce can be appointed for life just as quickly as someone who works full-time.
There is no increase in salary associated with the appointment for life, but the R 1 salary remains, which increases continuously with the length of professional experience. In Hesse, for example, it amounts to around 4,900 euros gross per month in the initial stage, and around 7,500 euros gross per month in the final stage, which is reached after 18 years.
Further career planning in the judiciary is relatively imponderable, as various factors that are only partially under the individual’s influence can play a role when it comes to moving from the R 1 salary to a higher salary group. While assessors, judges at the district court and the regional court as well as public prosecutors are assigned to salary group R 1, all following salary groups are only achieved after a promotion. Salary group R 2 includes presiding judges at the regional court, senior public prosecutors or judges at the higher regional court. Depending on your level of experience, you earn between around 6,200 euros and around 8,200 euros per month in Hesse. Only very few reach salary group R 3 with a monthly basic salary of around 9,000 euros gross, which corresponds to the position of a presiding judge at the Higher Regional Court or a senior public prosecutor, or an even higher salary level. The majority of judges and prosecutors are paid grades R 1 or R 2. Whether you are promoted depends, among other things, on professional experience, available secondment positions and open promotion positions.
Secondments to other institutions – also part-time
The professional experience required for promotion is gained, on the one hand, through the length of time spent working in the judiciary and, on the other hand, through trials as part of secondments. It is common practice to send judges to the responsible higher regional court and prosecutors to the responsible public prosecutor’s office. There are also secondments to other institutions such as the highest federal courts, the Federal Constitutional Court, state courts, ministries of justice and European institutions. Experience has shown – although exceptions confirm the rule – that judges and prosecutors with younger children are not the ones who seek secondments to European institutions or to (non-local) federal ministries or federal courts at an early stage.
Such secondments can be completed not only full-time, but also part-time, without extending the required duration. In addition, apart from the circumstances mentioned, which can hardly be influenced anyway, the timing of professional development has no influence on further career development. The transport will then only take place later. There is no age-related up or out when it comes to career paths in the judiciary.
Overall, having and raising children in the justice system is a good idea. Family friendliness is high and the disadvantages are manageable. This is the strength with which the third power can proliferate. In view of the attractiveness – especially in monetary terms – of other employers in the fight for the best minds, it must also do so.
Dr. Charlotte Rau, LL.M is a ministerial councilor in the Hessian Ministry of Justice and for the Rule of Law. She was previously a judge from 2002 to 2023, most recently at the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main.
Dr. Christine Schröder is a judge at the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court and is currently seconded to the Federal Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice.
2024-02-10 13:25:36
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