Associate Justice

Associate Justice or Associate Judge is the title for a member of a judicial panel who is not the Chief Justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the United States Supreme Court and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth countries, as well as for members of the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia, a former United States Trust Territory. In other common law jurisdictions, the equivalent position is callled "Puisne Justice".

In the United States, judicial panels are non-hierarchical, so an Associate Judge has the same responsibilities with respect to cases as the Chief Judge.

An Associate Judge usually has fewer or different administrative responsibilities than the Chief. Famously, on the Supreme Court of the United States, the most junior Associate Justice (currently Justice Elena Kagan), has the task of answering the door when the Justices are in private conference.

There are eight Associate Justices on the United States Supreme Court, and three Associate Justices on the Supreme Court of the Federated States of Micronesia.

In New Zealand, Associate Judges of the High Court of New Zealand supervise preliminary processes in most civil proceedings. Associate Judges have jurisdiction to deal with such matters as: summary judgment applications, company liquidations, bankruptcy proceedings, and some other types of civil proceedings. In the New Zealand legal system, Associate Judges were formerly known as Masters.

Famous quotes containing the words associate and/or justice:

    We’re headed for collapse, if you want my opinion, Missy. I can see it in the fallin’ off of the quality of vagrants. There was a time you could find real good company in almost any jungle you’d pick, men who could talk, men who’d read a book now and then; and now, what do you find, a lot of dirty little guttersnipes no decent tramp would want to associate with.
    Well, it’s been that way all through history.
    John Dos Passos (1896–1970)

    Her wrongs are ... indissolubly linked with all undefended woe, all helpless suffering, and the plenitude of her “rights” will mean the final triumph of all right over might, the supremacy of the moral forces of reason and justice and love in the government of the nation. God hasten the day.
    Anna Julia Cooper (1859–1964)