Complaint about Judge’s behaviour. Help!

Hello,

I’ve just sat and watched a judge reduce my client to tears. He was, in the opinion of my client and her sister by turns arrogant, dismissive, impatient and, possibly, just plain wrong.

My client has memory and concentration issues, and began to drift off while being questioned. She was prompted by her sister, and asked the judge to repeat the question. This happened on two more occasions, until the judge became impatient and said ‘This tribunal cannot continue if you have to be prompted by your sister everytime you’re asked a question!’

My client was then question by a very patient and seemingly reasonable GP. Client then became confused as she couldn’t remember exactly which joints she’d had x-rayed and when. Judge, very snappily and patronisingly demanded an answer, which she couldn’t give, because she couldn’t remember.

Unfortunately, client then snapped, and accused the judge of being insensitive and patronising. She was clearly very upset and judge suggested we adjourn while she calmed down. We went out for about 10 minutes, then the clerk called us back in. I was half expecting a points decision on memory, behaviour etc.

But no. Judge said that, in light of how the client was coping with the tribunal, it would be best to adjourn to another hearing. I said, ‘With respect, this is how my client copes, it is highly likely that she will react exactly the same at another Tribunal’.

He then said, ’ Well, I didn’t want this written down, but the reason I am adjourning is because ‘we’ (actually ‘him’) have been accused of talking down to your client. In the light of this, your client would have no confidence in our decision, I am therefore adjourning’.

It was useless, what would have at that point been arguing, but I would have asked what the confidence of the appelant has in a decision taken by an impartial judge has to do with anything, and given the behaviour of my client, is it in the best interests of anyone to adjourn?

I think a complaint could be in order, but maybe I’m too close to the action. Can anyone suggest???

Seems he was going to say No even if it was a majority decision and you should accept the adjournment in the best interests of your client.

You and another client will have the same judge again one day and believe it or not judges are people too.

People who have good days and bad days and next time round may be different.

Unless it’s a persistent pattern of behaviour then you may be doing more harm than godd in the long run.

Write a letter of complaint about the judge’s attitude and general behaviour.  Get your client’s sister to do one also and submit them together. In the matter of the adjournment, the tribunal has to find a balance between fairness and undue delay.  I appreciate that further delay can cause more stress on your client but reading between the lines when the judge said “…..your client would have no confidence in our decision, I am therefore adjourning” he probably meant that the tribunal (or his casting vote at least - I take it that it was an ICB/ESA appeal) was going to disallow the appeal.  Thus the adjournment was probably the best decision your client was going to get.

Thanks for your replies. Hmmmm…. I don’t think that judges, like doctors, can afford to allow the quality of their day to affect the atmosphere of a tribunal (or, er, a health centre(!))  It’s not supposed to be a visit to a headmaster’s office, which is how my client felt.

What I would like is his transcript…. Will I be able to request his notes?

To answer the last point first, you will need to make a written request for a copy of the record of proceedings.  Irrespective of any other action you will need to clarify with your client the evidence taken for when the matter comes back before the Tribunal

I agree with the other posters that the adjournment is probably in the best interests of your client in the circumstances you describe.

Personally I would hesitate to formally complain unless you were satisfied that this particular Tribunal Judge was prone to behaving in this fashion.  Perhaps see if you and your client still feel the same come Monday

If the Judge for whatever reason felt that he was not able to act impartially in the case then he did the right thing in deciding the need for adjournment. You don’t know what happened between him and the doctor while you were out of the room. He will have excluded both of them from further involvement in the case. He may have realised that there was no prospect of recovering any kind of relationship with your client that could have enabled the hearing to continue.

I’m not sure you are entitled to ask for a copy of the record of proceedings where there has been no final decision. But do complain to the Regional Tribunal Judge by all means - he or she would want to know. Have you met this Judge before or is he new?

He’s not new, Ariadne, and he does have a dreadful manner.

I think, on reflection, he could have handled it a lot better, but if he was in the position that he could not have remained impartial following an outburst from an agitated appellant, well….. I don’t know enough about Tribunal Service guidance or legal procedure to make a judgement on whether he was right or wrong, but I do know that he was awful, which, I guess comes down to personal opinion…. I don’t know.

The reason I’d like the notes is that they should provide some evidence for the next appeal i.e that client couldn’t concentrate, needed prompting, had an outburst, etc.

After 12 years experience of tribunals, I am quite sure that some judges dislike claimants and have difficulty conducting a fair hearing because they can’t put their prejudices away when they are hearing a case. How they show the prejudice can be subtle. One I’ve encountered a few times habitually assumes claimants are lying without being able to explain quite why she finds them implausible. (You can see this in her written reasons for her decisions). I have only complained formally about one judge, however, when she went beyond rudeness and spent more than two hours on one of my appeals in an ever more desperate attempt to find something in the regulations that would stop the client from winning the appeal.
If you are going to complain about this one, I would suggest you make the complaint completely factual and without heat, but very detailed as to what the judge did wrong, and preferably get a colleague who has encountered the same judge to make their own complaint at the same time. Expect to have to submit your complaint twice, it is likely to get thrown back at the the first attempt. This is not peculiar to the Tribunals Service, all complaint systems seem designed to put people off and you have to persist to get a complaint taken seriously.
If the first complaint isn’t upheld, or isn’t taken seriously, you might want to consider keeping a file on the particular judge if his behaviour is consistently bad, so that you can make another complaint later that will stick.

efloyd - 19 November 2010 03:07 PM

Hmmmm…. I don’t think that judges, like doctors, can afford to allow the quality of their day to affect the atmosphere of a tribunal (or, er, a health centre(!))

If only we lived in an ideal world. Show me the perfect person and I’ll show you a fool.

We don’t live in the real world and you’re not the boss of the judge.

Also, no offence, but the post comes across as the correct decision in your opinion was to award the points.

I have no doubt that the tribunal may have been as bad as you say but I really think you have to take a view of the bigger picture.

If you did decide to complain about a judge to his boss you would need a body of evidence for a complaint to be succesful for the reasons explained in depth by other posters.

Without the body of evidence it would be a case of ‘in your opinion the judge behaved badly’ and ‘in your opinion the appellant should have won’ and ‘in your opinion the decison to adjourn was wrong’

Whereas the casual observer (not man at C&A btw) may think the adjournment was a fair and realistic outcome in the circumstances described.

I In this case the judge did the correct thing in adjourning. It could have been a road crash for your client if they went ahead and ruled against your client. I do not accept as an excuse for judges that they have off days. Would they give reptresentatives or presentiong officers the same slack?.  They are picked and appointed on the basis of their impartiallity. Yes they do get things wrong. So do all concerned with appeals. ,There are routes to remedy this in complaint, set aside, and written statements of reasons. 

I do not think that a complaint is justified unless the client feels this is appropiate. The focus must be on the new appeal hearing. The notes of proceedings and the new decision notice should be entered into the appeal papers and you can use the difficulty experienced by the client in answering questions as evidence for specific descriptors.

I do not think views such as ‘I am quite sure that some judges dislike claimants and have difficulty conducting a fair hearing because they can’t put their prejudices away when they are hearing a case. How they show the prejudice can be subtle.’ can help anyone or thing. If that view is held then we are guilty of the same judgemental failures of those we acuse if not based on fact. Again if you think this has occurred then the correct approach is complaint, set aside, and written statements of reasons.

All appeal statistics for 20089-10 show that of 38.26% of all appeal were successful but this underplays the much higher success rate where people attend in person.

Efloyd, if it’s who I think it is I’d recommend making a formal complaint. I did several years ago & low & behold the culprit’s manner improved.
My gripe is why the wing members kowtow to bullying Chairs, sorry it’s less formal now, I mean Judges. Although this medical wing member appears to have empathised with your client.
Good luck if you do formally complain, the sooner we have these bullies out the Appeal Service the better it will be….for all of us.
The FtT rules overriding objective is for tribunals to deal with cases fairly & justly.
Did this particular judge dispense this to your client?

Whatever did or did not happen in this case or whatever the merits or the chances of a complaint being upheld are, there is no excuse for rudeness or bullying that goes beyond mere robust questioning and each incident needs to be raised with TTS so these things can be monitored and eventually eradicated.