Court judges while the Court of Appeal also gets a boost.

Attorney General Dame Lois Browne Evans said funds would be immediately available to increase the Supreme Court Bench from three to four but the new law will allow a total of five judges.

And the Court of Appeal will be allowed to boost its numbers from five to six.

Dame Lois said: "It's a simple bill but it's well overdue and is awaited keenly by judges in another place.

"It's become apparent that the number needs to be increased.

"Even though Government has asked for the increase to be five in the first instance, there are only sufficient funds to allow one judge to be appointed.

"That will take place in this session before the Budget of 2001.'' Shadow Legislative Affairs Minister John Barritt welcomed the move but questioned why Government, when faced by a shortage on the bench due to clashing holidays earlier in the year, hadn't used its powers to appoint temporary judges.

He said: "Finance is sometimes the way (politicians) can influence selection of judges and the bench.

"I had my suspicions. We want to preserve the independence of the judiciary from political interference.'' He said it was time the financing of judges wasn't subject to the government of the day.

Dame Lois said the Opposition had their suspicions about everything the Government did.

She said: "They are paranoid and suspicious, everything has some sinister meaning.'' She said the permission of the Finance Ministry was needed and it was not possible to conjure up money at a whim.

"There is no need to be suspicious, we clearly said money is there now, but money was not there before.

"We have to wait until the Finance Ministry says the money is there.'' Mr. Barritt welcomed the appointment of an extra Court of Appeal judge which he said would mean three could handle the long running appeals while the other three could handle day to day matters.

It is thought the long-running Thyssen case could tie up three appeal court judges as both sides are likely to appeal if they lose the case.

He said there were other aspects of the judiciary that needed to be looked at.

He said: "It's difficult to find Bermudians who will go to the bench. One of the things considered a drawback is the salary of $117,000.'' He said that might seem a lot to the average man or woman, but it wasn't an attractive package when you considered the years of experience appointees would have.

And he said there would be a need for overseas judges for some time to come and he questioned what was happening on the issue of court reporting which would free judges from having to take notes in longhand.