A leading defence lawyer has criticised Premier Alex Scott for going public during the controversy over the appointment of the new Chief Justice.

Larry Scott said the appointment should have been handled the ?old British way? ? quietly behind closed doors.

He said it was inconceivable the controversy did not affect sitting Puisne Judge Norma Wade Miller, who was pipped for the post by Richard Ground.

The Premier publicly revealed he supported Mrs. Justice Wade Miller for the post and said Governor Sir John Vereker was backing Mr. Ground. And he revealed he was meeting Overseas Territories Minister Bill Rammell to push for a Bermudian in the top post.

Lawyer Mr. Scott also said there was a desperate need for better financing of the judicial system and more judges.

He said Mr. Ground, a commercial law expert, could find himself swamped if there is another big corporate case such as the Thyssen-Bornemisza dispute, which dragged on for more than two years.

He told : ?The manner in which this appointment was conducted was inappropriate.

?To choose a judge through the newspapers, as has been the case, while a judge is still sitting, has the potential to create a problem.

?Mrs. Justice Wade Miller must have been under enormous pressure of expectation and potential disappointment. I don?t say it did affect her, but I don?t see how it could not have.

?I don?t think the controversy should have been made public. The meetings (between Mr. Scott and Mr. Rammell) should have been held quietly and confidentially.

?The old British way of doing things works far better. You seldom have this kind of controversy over a judicial appointment in the UK and I just think we ought to be mature enough to deal with these things ourselves.

?There is a tried and tested way and a sense of decorum about. Do it behind closed doors, particularly while a judge was sitting.?

He added: ?We should always, where we can, have a Bermudian judge. I have never shied away from that.?

Mr. Scott said there was a need for more judges and he suggested a separate commercial division could have been established with Englishman Mr. Ground, the current Turks and Caicos Chief Justice, at its head.

He said there was a need for judges to have a library and clerks doing research for them, to allow judgements to be issued far quicker.

And he said judges working on tricky cases who had a lot of judgments to write should not be expected to sit on the bench until they cleared the backlog of judgments.

?Richard will have to ask if he can bring in more people. And is he going to do all the commercial cases himself?? he added.

?We could get another Thyssen case and Richard will be faced with ?Oh my God, how do I do this and keep the system going??. We are going to have to address the overall structural problems of the bench.?