Solicitors accused of incompetence to complain about judge

Two of the three solicitors accused by Judge Gledhill QC of incompetence are planning to lodge a complaint against the judge.

As I reported yesterday, Judge Gledhill said last week that a solicitor defending one of four fraudsters accused of taking part in a £3.5 million credit card cloning operation had “neither the experience nor the competence to adequately represent his client” in court.

He addressed his remarks to Kathleen Roxburgh, a self-employed consultant with Bullivant and Partners. She was the only lawyer he had “no cause to criticise”.

The solicitors, based in the City of London, have now said that two of the three advocates criticised by the judge were also from the firm. Avtar Bhatoa, from Bullivant and Partners, told me that Judge Gledhill was referring to him when the judge said he had been thinking of calling in the firm's senior partner.

Bullivant and Partners have released a spirited defence to Judge Gledhill's remarks, which you can read here. It alleges that the judge was hostile to the firm's solicitor-advocates "from the outset".

Since issuing the statement, Bullivant and Partners have said they intend to refer the matter to the Office for Judicial Complaints.

Posted at April 21, 2009 04:38 PM