The Courts Service has advertised for highly-qualified lawyers to work as assistants to High Court judges in the preparation of judgments.
Advertisements for contracts for the new positions as judicial fellows were placed in newspapers in the last few days.
According to the advertisements, the posts will "provide for a direct insight into the judicial process, and expose the fellows to practice in the High Court".
Each fellow will be assigned by the president of the High Court to work with one or two judges whose major commitment is to judicial review, chancery, and commercial and competition law lists in the High Court.
They will be required to carry out legal research, writing, collation of materials and editing, and to attend court to assist the judge in carrying out his or her duties.
The need for such assistance has arisen due to the large increase in the number of cases requiring written judgments, especially in the areas of judicial review, new applications under the Companies Acts and competition law. There is also now a separate listing of commercial cases.
In addition, there has been recent pressure on the courts to deliver judgments more quickly.
All judgments are now expected within two months of the end of the hearing, and certain types of judgment need to be completed much sooner.
There have also been changes in how cases are managed, with more active case management by the judge and an increased number of pretrial hearings.
This means that judges are expected to read the relevant papers in advance in order to reduce the length of hearings.
The judicial fellows will, in consultation with the judge to whom they are assigned, prepare a draft summary of relevant facts and law and the submissions of parties for inclusion in the first draft of a judgment.
This may involve gleaning additional material from a number of outside sources.
The new role is already in existence in courts in other jurisdictions, including the federal courts in the US, the European Court in Luxembourg and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.
The judicial fellows must have a 2.1 honours degree or higher in law or with law as its major subject, a proven ability in legal writing, experience or a particular interest in judicial review or commercial law, and good IT skills.
The fellows will be independent contractors, working on two-year contracts at a fee of €50,000 a year.