What will happen when OJC receives a complaint about a judge's personal conduct?
1. The complaint should be acknowledged within two working days. If you apply online you should receive an acknowledgement shortly after you submit it.
2. The complaint will be allocated to a named caseworker who will write to you within 15 working days.
3. If the complaint is not about personal conduct we will tell you why OJC cannot help you. Where appropriate, we will tell you about other organisations that might be able to assist.
4. If we can deal with the complaint, we will write to you summarising what we think the issues are and how we intend to take the complaint further. Sometimes we will ask for further details about the complaint to help us decide whether we can investigate. It is important to note that OJC caseworkers cannot investigate criminal offences. If you think that a criminal offence has been committed by a judge you should inform the police so they can decide if it can be investigated further. A criminal conviction, following a police or other prosecuting body’s investigation, would then be a matter of personal misconduct which the OJC would be able to refer to the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor.
5. Where a complaint raises issues that may be regarded as judicial misconduct the OJC will investigate further. Depending on the circumstances of the complaint this may include the following:
- listening to the audio recording of the hearing;
- sending a copy of the complaint to the Judge and;
- asking him or her, or others who may have witnessed the incident, for their recollection of the incident.
6. In some cases it may be necessary to ask a senior judge to carry out an investigation into what has happened (Investigating Judge) or consult a senior judge for their view about whether the behaviour is appropriate for a judge (Nominated Judge). Investigating and Nominated Judges are appointed by the Lord Chief Justice with the agreement of the Lord Chancellor and carry out this role in addition to their day to day judicial role. If they find the complaint is justified, a report will be sent jointly to the Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor. If the complaint is not considered to be justified, then the caseworker will write to you telling you why the complaint was dismissed.
7. The caseworker should send you and the judge written updates about the progress of the complaint every four weeks. We aim to complete investigations within ninety days. However, it can take longer if an investigation or Review Body is required.
8. If the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice uphold the complaint, they will consider what disciplinary action, if any, is appropriate. The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice have the power to advise, warn reprimand or remove a judge for misconduct. A complaint upheld by the Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice will not alter the findings or any aspect of a court case.
9. The Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice will not normally pay compensation for losses arising from actions by judges. They may consider making an ex-gratia payment, but only in the most exceptional cases where actual loss has arisen as a result of personal misconduct.
10. Where the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice decide to take formal disciplinary action, the judicial office holder has a right to request that his or her case be referred to a 'Review Body'.
11. Each Review Body consists of four members, two judicial office holders and two non-judicial members (lay people) chosen from a panel appointed for this purpose. At this stage, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice must accept any findings of fact made by the Review Body. They cannot impose a disciplinary sanction on the judicial office-holder that is more severe than that recommended by the Review Body.
12. All complaints are handled in accordance with The Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) (Amended) Regulations 2008 (SI 2008/2098), which should be read in conjunction with, The Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/676).
Courts Judiciary and Coroner Complaints Process Flowchart: Page 1 - Page 2