ions. I mean they receive the confidential matters that go into an opinion. They have to be excellent contact people, and they have to take a good deal of the administrative detail off the shoulders of the judge, particularly if he is a senior circuit judge, which entails a good deal of administrative work.

I might say that even here in the East, and I think in other parts of the country, it is not so easy to keep a good secretary today occupying a position as secretary to a district judge, or a senior circuit judge, or a district judge at the rate of compensation of $2,600 basic, plus the additional $390.

I might add that is particularly true in my circuit where there is a good deal of heavy industry and some very large corporations pay considerably more than that amount to secretaries of executives holding corresponding positions.

Mr. JOHNSON of Indiana. Are these secretaries considered civilservice employees, or do they come under the retirement status?

Judge BIGGS. They do come under retirement status by virtue of a special act of Congress, that is, they pay in a portion of their salary each month. It is deducted, and then upon retirement at a certain age, they receive back a certain amount. They are not under civil service. They are entirely at the appointment of the judge, just as the law clerks are, or just as the clerks are.

PROPOSED LUMP-SUM ALLOTMENT TO JUDGES FOR MISCELLANEOUS SALARIES

We have given this matter a good deal of thought, and as you will recall, we had an informal meeting with the chairman of this committee, and most of the members who are here today, and Mr. Justice Miller, of the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, and we spent a good deal of time on this business of trying to get what we considered adequate arms to work with, adequate instruments, that is, the tools that we work with, and get them in such shape that we could have the same sort of service that is had by many of the administrative agencies or the executive side of the Government. But we are not able to work out anything that we needed at all satisfactorily until the suggestion was made at that informal meeting-and I think it was made by you, Mr. O'Neal, and several other members of the committee-that there might be pursued the same course that is followed in regard to the employees of the House of Representatives; that is, the Members of the House of Representatives, that is, to allot to each judge a sum of $6,500 which would cover his personnel, his secretary or secretaries, or law clerk.

Mr. GORE. Do you mean to all judges?

Judge BIGGS. All judges with two exceptions. It seemed to us in the case of senior circuit judges and of senior district judges of districts embracing five or more judges, that there should be an additional sum allocated, that is, only as to senior circuit judges and senior district. judges in cases where there were five or more judges. For example, the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the District of New Jersey, that is, and districts where there were five or more district judges, and in the case of senior district judges, instead of having $6,500, they should have a slightly larger sum, and the committee suggested to the conference $7,500, that is, $1,000 additional.

Mr. GORE. In your statement you said that all judges might not need that.

Judge BIGGS. Quite true.

Mr. GORE. You are making no allowance for that in your recommendation.

Judge BIGGS. Well, we are considering that factor, Congressman Gore, but in a slightly different way. The needs of many of these judges are different. For example, we will take a judge in Wyoming. It is quite possible that that judge in Wyoming might get adequate secretarial help by paying $2,000 a year even at the present time. He might get an adequate law clerk for a lesser sum, or in one of the lower classifications which I will deal with in just a moment. He might be able to get along on less than the sum of $6,500, in which event he would not need the full appropriation of $6,500.

Mr. O'NEAL. Considering that human nature is what it is, would he not use that full amount of $6,500?

Judge BIGGS. I really feel in most instances he would not. For example, to come back to Judge Learned Hand, Judge Learned Hand paid his stenographer somewhat less, for example. She is now at $2,600 plus the 15 percent, but he was paying considerably less than some of the other judges, and he has followed throughout this same business of getting a young man right out of law school who would not come within these grades.

CLASSIFICATIONS FOR LAW CLERKS AND SECRETARIES

Perhaps I had better come directly to the grades. I think that that might clear it up.

Following civil-service classification lines, the committee, and particularly Mr. Justice Miller, worked out classifications for law clerksand secretaries, five grades each.

In the case of secretaries, they would begin at CAF-4 at a salary of $1,800 to $2,180, with the title of assistant secretary, running right straight through to CAF-8, with a salary of $2,900 to $3,500; that is, a beginning salary of $2,900 and the end of the classification a salary of $3,500.

I might be able to give you an example of how that might work. Take my own case, for example. I have a law clerk who now receives the $2.600 plus the 15 percent. Mr. Justice Miller now suggests that I give you the law-clerk classification at the same time so that it may be all together.

There are five classifications there running from senior law clerk with a professional grade of P-1, which would be $2,000 to $2,600, running through P-1, P-2, P-3, P-4, and P-5 to a senior law clerk of $4,600 to $5,400. The job specifications are worked out for each of these classifications, whether he be secretary or law clerk.

I think probably I can illustrate it more adequately on the law clerk, and do it a little more quickly. If you take the situation in respect to law clerks, you will find on our report, beginning with appendix C-6, the page is not numbered

APPROPRIATION OF FUNDS FOR UNDETERMINED NEEDS

Mr. GORE. Before you go into that, we would be in somewhat of an awkward position in appropriating funds for all judges when ad

mittedly we have reason to believe they are not needed by all judges. I realize your committee has done some fine work, and you may not have been able to arrive at a way in which you could draw the line, but it would make it very difficult for us to appropriate funds admittedly not needed in all cases.

Judge BIGGS. Mr. Gore, I do not know the practical answer to your question, which is certainly pertinent, but there is no way of finding out the answer to that question, that I know of, until some such plan as this is put into operation.

Let me present one other phase of the problem which I think will point this up. Most of the members of the Judicial Conference have always felt that every district judge who wanted a law clerk and who needed one should have one. In my own case, in my own circuit, I think that every district judge should have a law clerk, and all of them have asked for them and asked for them repeatedly. We now have seven law clerks authorized in the district. Five of the positions are filled. Judge Kirkpatrick just lost his law clerk. He is the senior district judge of the eastern district of Pennsylvania, and Judge Kalodner has not yet found one, but those two vacancies will be filled. Now, there is a provision in the organic law, section 128 of title 28, which provides that a district judge shall have a law clerk if he needs one and if the senior circuit judge will certify to the need. I think in every instance where a district judge has asked for one, with very few exceptions, the senior circuit judge has so designated.

Mr. GORE. You say that there are some exceptions?

Judge BIGGS. I know of no exception where a district judge has asked for a law clerk and the senior circuit judge has refused to certify, when there was a law clerk available. You see, the original appropriation was for 30 law clerks. That was divided equally between the 10 circuits, and I think the District of Columbia. Then this committee last year, I believe, when Judge Knox appeared before you, authorized 25 more. They were not divided equally among the circuits.

Judge KNOX. I think the circuit judges there had certified 81.
Judge BIGGS. Yes, 81.

So you cannot tell quite definitely how many certifications there will be, how many requests there will be.

There is a committee on law clerks of which Judge Knox is the chairman, and if it is agreeable to you, he will present that phase of it, but I appreciate the difficulty here. It seems to me there must be some practical solution which you gentlemen could work out. Mr. HENDRICKS. I think that we can work that out.

Judge KNOX. Is it fair to judge what the experience has been with your Congressmen ?

Mr. O'NEAL. Off the record. (Discussion off the record.)

APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS OF FAMILIES OF COURT JUDGES AS LAW CLERKS

Judge BIGGS. The senior conference went on record about 3 years ago, and we have adhered to it very closely, that there should not be any member of a family appointed as a law clerk, or a secretary, or as an assistant in any capacity to the judge. I know of no case in my circuit, and I do not think there is any other place-but I am not

familiar with the whole United States-where that rule has not been adhered to, and it has caused some changes.

TOTAL REQUIREMENTS FOR SALARIES OF LAW CLERKS AND SECRETARIES

Mr. O'NEAL. Could Mr. Chandler give us some little paper showing the number of circuit judges, the resident personnel, and what this would give to them?

Judge BIGGS. I have it right here. Mr. Chandler prepared this and sent it up to me, and I am quite sure that it is accurate. There are 11 senior circuit judges.

There are 47 circuit judges.

There are eight senior district judges in districts having five or more judges.

There are 188 district judges.

So if you add the total of all those for a law clerk and a secretary for each one, taking $6,500 for each district judge and $7,500 for each senior circuit judge, and $7,500 for each senior district judge having five or more judges in his district, the total would be $1,670,000.

Now, then, you would deduct the present allotment for salaries of law clerks and secretaries, as they are today, which amounts to $936,745. The total additional cost of the allotment plan, this new plan, would be $733,255, and the Administrative Office has deducted the sum of $100,000 as an estimate of that portion of the appropriation which might not be used. That was done by Mr. Jackson, the Budget and Accounting Officer, who says that $100,000 is a pure estimate. My personal reaction is, though probably I am a minority in saying this, that the deduction of nonused expenditures would be larger than that. That is the way I think it would work out, and, if I may, I will offer this tabulation.

Mr. O'NEAL. It will be inserted in the record at this point. (The tabulation referred to is as follows:)

Computation of the amount included in the estimate for "Miscellaneous salaries. United States Courts"

11 senior circuit judges..

47 circuit judges.

8 senior district judges in districts having 5 or more judges as follows: California,
southern; District of Colun bia, Illincis, northern; Michigan, eastern; New
Jersey; New York, eastern; New York, southern; Pennsylvania, eastern..
188 district judges..

BASIS OF DETERMINING NEEDS FOR LAW CLERKS

Judge BIGGS. Some of the district judges have already indicated that they would not have a law clerk under any circumstances, that they preferred to look up their own law. I look up my own law, too, but

I think it is very useful, if you have got 150 cases to run down, to have somebody help you do it and not sit up all night doing it yourself. However, we are all different in the way that we work, and some of them have said point blank that they would not have a law clerk if one were authorized.

Mr. O'NEAL. And you give consideration to the gradation based on the number of cases before the court?

Judge BIGGS. No; on the amount of service of the law clerk, his experience, his training, and the number of years of his service in doing the particular work.

Mr. O'NEAL. I mean so far as giving them the full $6,500 is concerned, have you considered analyzing the experience of the past 10 years in each district court as to the amount of business they had? Did yon estimate that in any way, and the need for the law clerk?

Judge BIGGS. I do not have any figures to produce, Mr. Chairman, that would throw any light on it.

Judge KNOX. The character of the litigation has a great deal to do with it rather than the number of cases.

Mr. O'NEAL. The character of it and the number of cases have not been considered, as far as grading is concerned?

Judge BIGGS. The theory has been this, and it may be an erroneous theory, but I think it is not-our thought has been that the district judge who wanted a law clerk should have one if his senior circuit judge would certify to the necessity for him. If the senior circuit judge did not certify to the necessity, then he could not get one. That is a provision of the organic law to which I referred.

I know this is true, that the senior circuit judges know the business of their circuits pretty well. They know the business of the individual district judge and the amount of work he would do. They are supplied with quarterly reports by the Administrative Ofice which show the amount of work. Of course, in my own circuit--and I think I can say this with propriety-I know very well what is going on and what each judge does and the quality of work that he has. You cannot do it solely on number.

The district of Delaware, for example, has a case load of about 85 cases to the judge, which is lower than the average. On the other hand, it has the heaviest cases with the exception of the southeastern district of New York of pretty nearly any place in the United States. There is only one judge there. I might say that I hope there will be another one before long. It is too much work for one man, for example, one twenty-seventh of all the patent cases filed in the United States in the entire 88 districts are filed in the district of Delaware. That has been true over the last fiscal year. In other words, instead of that court having one eighty-eighth of its proportion of the patent cases, which are the heaviest cases that you get, I think, it had one twentyseventh of them. The case load varies very greatly throughout the United States, but when you get to the metropolitan areas, you run more frequently into heavy cases, even though they be under one number. For example, there was a criminal case tried in the District of Delaware, and this is an exception, which took 63 trial days-actually 63 days of trial. It was pretty nearly a record for the circuit. There may have been one longer case, but I am not quite certain about that.