"While they often work into the night, many young judges fail to afford an apartment in Shanghai," Cui told a group of national legislators during this year's NPC session.

On top of poor living conditions, the workloads are excessive, according to legislator Li Biying, with each judge in Shanghai handling an average of 131 cases over the past year. That translates into one case every two working days.

"I hope the central authorities can raise judges' salaries in the near future," said Li Liuzhu with the Yicheng court.

Professional management

Besides rising workloads and low salaries, experts and insiders also point out the problem with the outdated management model for the country's judges, and suggest more innovation could reinvigorate the system.

Peng at the Renmin University of China's Law School believes the current management system, which treats judges the same as other civil servants, exerts a negative influence on the performance of judges.

"This model neglects the special character and need for autonomy for judges, creating obstacles for them during trials involving other government agencies or officials," Peng said.

Zhou from Guangdong agreed with Peng. In his proposal submitted to the NPC, Zhou said that the current management of judges affects the efficiency and independent jurisdiction of courts.

Zhou said that since Chinese judges are now under the same assessment and promotion system as civil servants, many judges are inclined to seek promotion through methods other than perfecting their professional performance. "Instead of being a good judge, they may prefer to be a resourceful official," he wrote in the proposal.

In addition to this, since the budget of courts and promotion of judges are linked with the government at the same level, independent jurisdiction has been affected, Zhou complained.

Meanwhile, Zhu Zhengxu, also an NPC deputy and a judge from Baofeng County in Henan, said that the current personnel management system also limited judges' promotion opportunities.

According to the Supreme People's Court, the current system divides judges into several grades, with the highest being the chief judge and the lowest being a "grade-five" judge. Above grade-one judges are a number of higher senior positions.

Zhu said that under the model, a judge, starting with assistant judges, could reach the rank of grade five within seven years, under the condition that he or she committed no wrongdoings.

However, there is another regulation stipulating that in a county-level court, only its president can be a senior judge and all other judges can reach grade one at the highest. "That means a judge will have no chance of being promoted further before retirement if he or she does not leave that court," she said.

Zhu Jingwen, another professor at the Renmin University of China's Law School, said that the situation is perpetuated by the fact that the current management system for judges is indiscriminately covered by the country's administrative management system. He suggests establishing an independent management system for judges.

"Judges are different from other civil servants. They hold a special profession, so they need a professional management system to guard their special honors and ensure independence," Zhu said.

Peng agrees that the management system for judges should respect the rules of their judicial work. "Creating sound systems to stipulate admittance, retirement, promotion, education, performance evaluation, as well as reward and punishment for the judges will all be important tasks in reforming the judicial personnel management system," he said.

Showing concern for the issue, the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Supreme People's Court issued a regulation together in March last year, saying that they will make a separate management system for judicial workers.

Peng suggests the central authorities integrate current regulations to make a single regulatory document for regulating management of judges. "Currently, except for the Judges Law, other stipulations concerning judge management are scattered in different regulatory documents, which creates difficulties," Peng said.

Meanwhile, Zhu has advised control over the number of lawsuits handled by community-level courts, under the condition that judges are in shortage. He suggests diverting less urgent cases to local mediation agencies to ease the burden on these judges.

"It is harder for a judge to ensure justice when he or she is under pressure," Zhu said.

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