JUDGES and lawyers in criminal courts will keep their traditional wigs and gowns despite a review of legal dress which has taken four years to complete.
The Lord Chief Justice said there would be no change to the world famous 18th century-style costume in criminal courts, apart from abolishing seasonal variations in the robes of High Court judges.
But from January 1 judges and lawyers will ditch wigs, wing collars and “bands� – the strips of white linen worn like a tie – when sitting in civil and family courts, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said.
A £110,000 consultation paper on possible reforms was launched in May 2003 by the Lord Chancellor-before-last, Lord Irvine of Lairg, but a decision has only just been made.
A survey of 1,600 members of the public and 500 court users commissioned at the time showed more than 64% believed court dress should be modernised.
Only a third thought barristers should continue to wear the horsehair headgear.
Yesterday's announcment said circuit bench judges will continue to wear their current gown, namely a violet robe with lilac facings, and a sash over the left shoulder which is lilac when dealing with civil business and red when dealing with crime.
District judges, their deputies and recorders in civil cases will wear a new, simple gown which is currently being designed.
Solicitor advocates - who are non-barristers permitted to appear in the Crown Court and above - will for the first time get equal rights with barristers to don the legal wig.
Lord Phillips said: “At present High Court judges have no less than five different sets of working dress, depending on the jurisdiction in which they are sitting and the season of the year.
“After widespread consultation it has been decided to simplify this and to cease wearing wigs, wing collars and bands in the civil and family jurisdictions.
A spokesman for the Judicial Communications Office said the annual saving would be £300,000 while the one-off cost of supplying the new civil gown was estimated to be about £200,000.
The black gown worn by barristers and some judges dates from when the legal profession was in mourning for Queen Anne, who died in 1714.