Personnel argument: students may be allowed to work as secretaries in courts

In Russia, qualification requirements for a number of court staff may be relaxed. The relevant bill was approved by the plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on June 16 for submission to the State Duma. Currently, higher education is required for such positions, however, if the amendments are adopted, graduates of specialized colleges, as well as law students, will be able to work as secretaries and consultants. Whether this will help attract young professionals and reduce the personnel shortage is discussed in the Izvestia article.

Who can be allowed to work in court

The Supreme Court of Russia proposed to simplify the requirements for candidates for a number of staff positions, including court clerks, consultants and court session clerks. The relevant bill was supported by the plenum of the Supreme Court on June 16. The document is planned to be submitted to the State Duma in the near future.

"If the new law is adopted, it will be possible to employ young people with secondary professional legal education, as well as students receiving higher legal education, in court offices, provided that they have completed at least half of their studies in accordance with the federal state standard," the explanatory note to the draft law says.Izvestia").

Changes are going to be made to the federal law "On the State Civil Service of the Russian Federation." If the bill is passed, the new rules will apply to all federal courts — with the exception of the Constitutional and Supreme courts — as well as to the offices of magistrates, said Oleg Zatelepin, Secretary of the Plenum of the Supreme Court, Judge of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Relaxing the requirements for "secretarial" positions will help attract young professionals and solve the problem of staff turnover, the document says.

"In conditions of high workload and relatively low wages, ensuring the stability of the staff in the offices of the courts is becoming a top priority task facing the judicial system," the authors of the document emphasized. — The proposed bill will expand the circle of people who have the right to hold these positions by attracting young people who are just starting their professional career, but already have special knowledge. It will also preserve guarantees for those who have already received higher legal education."

The explanatory note noted that young professionals usually work as court clerks and consultants in order to gain the necessary experience that will allow them to apply for the position of judge in the future.

Staff shortage

In January 2026, the Chairman of the Russian Armed Forces, Igor Krasnov, called the problem of staff turnover and shortage in the courts' offices "one of the most acute and painful." In an interview with Kommersant, he noted that such employees perform a large number of tasks that are not directly related to the consideration of cases, but are necessary for the work of the judicial system.

The problem concerns not only secretaries and consultants. According to Igor Krasnov, by the beginning of the year, more than 3,500 positions of magistrates and federal judges remained vacant. In February, Vladimir Putin noted that the shortage of staff in federal courts of general jurisdiction and arbitration reaches 15%.

The bill, approved during the plenum of the Supreme Court, was a logical response to the shortage of personnel in the courts, says Anton Pivovarov, a lawyer at the Moscow Sed Lex Bar Association.

— The workload for such specialists is extremely high, and vacancies remain open for a long time. In some regions, the vacancy rate in courts reaches several tens of percent," he said.

About 20% of judges in Russia are currently missing, and the staff shortage among judicial staff is even greater, Anton Klyuchko, head of the Klyuchko, Landau and Partners law office, told Izvestia.

Anton Pivovarov added that the shortage of court clerks is especially severe in large cities, where lawyers are more likely to join the bar, government authorities or commercial organizations due to more attractive working conditions and pay.

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"The bill, if adopted, will help reduce the burden on current staff, and will also enable students to start a professional career while still studying," the lawyer believes.

However, the expert stressed, the measure will only partially solve the problem, since the main reason for the personnel shortage is the discrepancy between salaries, the volume of work and the level of responsibility.

Court staff work under high workload conditions, often face psychological pressure, and their incomes do not match the complexity and importance of their tasks, Anton Klyuchko agreed.

— Unfortunately, couriers now receive several times more than judges, — he noted. — Making the work of court clerks more accessible is unlikely to solve the personnel issue. In remote regions of Russia, young people are reluctant to join judicial offices, as older people usually work there. And in megacities, students have even more options, and employers are ready to make them profitable offers.

For a systematic solution to the personnel issue, it is necessary to raise salaries for judicial staff, develop social guarantees, as well as professional development programs for young professionals, lawyer Anton Pivovarov believes.