Customer of a Judge

[zarathustra]

Hello,

I recently attended an online tribunal hearing. It turns out that I had been a customer of the judge whilst he was working as a solicitor.

For one reason or another, it took me until after the hearing for me to recognise. I intend on complaining to the Chamber President but I was wondering whether anybody else had been in this position? Are there any other steps that I should be taking?

many thanks.

[R0b]

I assume you lost your case, otherwise you wouldn't be complaining?

The fact that you were a client of the judge is not, in itself an issue. There are lots of solicitors/barristers who then become judges and all know each other simply because they all operate in the same sphere.

So if you are complaining because you were a client isn't likely to go anywhere. If there is something more to this such as bias, then you would need to follow the appeal route (as that is the correct route) and have some evidence of the judge being biased against you.

[zarathustra]

Hi Rob. Thanks for the reply. Yes, very biased and unsurprisingly I lost.

cheers.

[R0b]

In that case, if you are not happy with the outcome then you need to make an appeal not a complaint.

Have to say outright, it is all too easy for litigants in person to claim a judge being biased and these types of allegations are not easy to prove. Generally there's a 2-stage process:

1. ascertain the circumstances you think were relevant to the judge being biased.
2. Taking into account of the facts, would the a fair-minded observer think that there was a possibility of the judge being biased (this is an objective assessment).

As I said before, you being a client of the judge in the past is not enough so you are going to have to provide detailed examples of where you think the judge was biased.