Barristers ‘bullied and humiliated’ by hostile judges

RUDE judges are “bullying” lawyers in courtrooms, a top QC has complained.

Prof Jo Delahunty QC said barristers have told her how they had been humiliated by “judicial bullying”. She said some judges “abuse their position by being unjustifiably rude, hostile, unfairly critical of, and abusive towards, lawyers who appear before them”.

The barrister, who works in family law and specialises in child abuse and protection, said lawyers were too afraid to raise the behaviour with the judicial conduct investigations office (JCIO).

Prof Delahunty said the behaviour went “well beyond the grumpy, peeved or abrasive when an advocate’s conduct falls below that which could properly be expected by the Bench.”

“I am not talking of stern (even taciturn) judicial intervention and direction in a case to keep issues focused,” she said. “What was being reported from the Bar described conduct from some judges that was highly inappropriate, such that it fell within the Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) definition of workplace bullying: ‘offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour, an abuse or misuse of power through means that undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the person being bullied’.

“And yet, it is rare that this kind of judicial behaviour is brought to light officially,” she said. In a piece for Counsel, a magazine for lawyers, she said that she too had been bullied.

Last year, barristers from Garden Court Chambers, in London, wrote a piece for the Law Society Gazette, which reported numerous examples of bullying, including a barrister “driven to tears in the robing room” after being bullied for “standing up to the judge”.

In another case, a lawyer was told by a judge that they needed “to be very careful indeed”. The judge allegedly added: “If you come in front of me again with that kind of assertion [appearance of bias) with nothing to back it up then you will be in trouble”.

The JCIO received 2,126 complaints in 2016-17, and 2,609 in 2015-16. However, the vast majority of complaints were rejected.

When the figures were published last year, Stephanie Hack, a joint head of the JCIO, said the low number of disciplinary actions – just 42 in that year – was a “testament to the high standards of conduct maintained by judicial office holders”. There are around 26,000 members of the judiciary.

Angela Rafferty, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “The Criminal Bar has zero tolerance of bullying. The privilege of public service brings responsibility and on this the justice system is united.”

Last week, Sir James Munby, the head of the Family Division of the High Court, said judges were “grotesquely overworked” and “tired” and so were more likely to make errors.