"Rude" judge is the first to be sacked in public

Margaret Short, a district judge who was appointed to the South East District Bench on 6 January 1993, has been removed from judicial office by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice.

The Office for Judicial Complaints said today that her removal followed complaints about her misconduct in court, “primarily about the way in which she behaved towards solicitors appearing before her but including a variety of other inappropriate behaviour”.

District Judge Short is the first full-time judge to be sacked since the Office for Judicial Complaints started naming judges whose conduct was the subject of an investigation. However, the investigation in her case goes back to before new disciplinary procedures were intriduced three years ago.

District Judges are the most junior members of the full-time judiciary. Most of their work involves deciding civil claims in the county courts.

In a statement, the the Office for Judicial Complaints said that the final decision to remove District Judge Short from office followed a judicial investigation started in 2006.

“This investigation looked at various complaints and found that her behaviour had been inappropriate, petulant and rude with regard to one incident, and intemperate and ill-judged with regard to another.

“The investigation also identified the following criticisms of District Judge Short’s conduct:

• taking annual leave when she was asked specifically not to;

• failing on request to hand over court documents central to the investigation combined with a refusal to co-operate with it, thereby contributing significantly to the time the disciplinary process has taken; and

• failing to deal with the substantive issues or to exercise sound judgement when responding to the complaints. This included making serious allegations against support staff which were not only untrue but which it was found she knew to be untrue.

“On this basis, and against a history of earlier complaints, the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice have decided to remove District Judge Short from office under section 11(5) of the County Courts Act 1984.”

Posted at April 23, 2009 02:04 PM