Judicial Bullying: knotted knickers can be cruel.

Judicial bullying for fun and profit, by Judge Judy.

Though as old as law, it is only recently that judicial bullying has been recognised as a problem. It has sparked the interest of senior practitioners, leaders of the bar and judges; been the subject of scholarly exploration and articles offering advice to its victims. Then there is this: a personal and anxious account of how things once were and still are in some court rooms. It may be rare but it still exists and the results are both fearful and funny.

            If there ever were a chamber designed for bullying then the criminal court room is it. Its structure, its personnel and purpose all support if not encourage bullying. There is the high judge’s bench backed by symbols of the state overseeing lowly counsel and the boxed in accused. There are the associate, bailiff and corrections officers all tasked if not sworn to do the judge’s bidding. And there is the law itself, the thing that properly expressed can deprive one of property, liberty and in some jurisdictions, even life itself.

            It is hardly surprising that some judges are seduced to wield their power with a blunt brutality that can strip confidence, degrade dignity and cripple competence. It is no real comfort to think that these judges are often deeply flawed and unhappy: their behaviour dents and damages just the same.

Welcome to my court. I hope you've brought a body bag.

            In twenty years of practice I’ve seen all manner of judicial abrasiveness. Some, the occasional glitch, born of fatigue or stress or a frustration at delinquent counsel can be forgiven; the rest, the product of rude thoughtlessness and even cruelty cannot.

            So what have I seen? What war stories can I tell? Have I seen a judge clean a handgun in court as happened in the States? No. Have I seen one abuse a ‘worm’ with the shining brilliance of Peter Cook’s famous beak? No.  Have I seen one point and scream and foam at the mouth? No, not in court anyway.

Have I seen any at all? First hand? Up close and personal? Indeed I have and though sometimes subtle and sophisticated it can nevertheless cripple.

For example, you may think it a small thing but I find the routine indignity visited upon accused to be unnecessary. Maintaining control in a courtroom is desirable, even necessary, but the routine slapping down of those without power can be wanton. When you are about to sentence a man to life imprisonment, is it necessary to underscore the moment by barking only his last name when demanding that he stand. There are judges who still do it. There are others who demand after sentence that the corrections officers, ‘take the prisoner down’, as if they were still to be hauled away to some damp stone dudgeon.

Gives me 20 years, calls me Scumbag. Where's the fuckin 'Mr'.

            Once there was a judge, notoriously tough on sentence, who liked prosecutors to give him the ammunition to arm him to pass sentences of dizzying proportions. In legal terms that means finding comparative cases that suggest a high sentencing range. Submit for a sentence too low to his mind and he would growl, ‘perhaps we should change places’, or ‘you should be prosecuting in the traffic court.’

He could be persistent too, as tireless as a marathon runner. Once a prosecutor initially submitted that an offence warranted a sentence of 6 years imprisonment. What followed was 40 minutes of what the judge might call exploring the facts, law and comparative cases, but what looked a lot like a berating to me. In the end the prosecutor crumpled.

‘What I meant to say Your Honour, was that the sentencing range starts at 6 years. It goes up from there,’ he said. The judge smirked, thanked him and handed out the 9 years he’d wanted from the start.

It is one thing to watch a judicial flailing and quite another to be the subject of one. I have known young counsel who simply would refuse to appear before certain judges, and other lawyers who’s confidence was so shattered that they left the law entirely. One young prosecutor was so cruelly and routinely debased by a judge that the prosecutor dreamed of lying in wait for him with a baseball bat. Sadly, wisely too, the prosecutor left the profession before acting on his urge.

What do you man I'm due in court? I thought I was there.

I was nearly broken once too, by a judge - the very worst of them all - who took a deep dislike to me. His manic, pointed and impossible questioning was designed only to belittle and embarrass. I recall once being so rattled as to be nearly incapable of thought or action. I have never forgotten the incident and cannot forgive it. He is retired now and waiting to die. When the time comes, one hopes it will be like his life, a miserable and lonely passing.

To balance the ledger I should record that judges can be bullied too. Sometimes colleagues may conspire to isolate and weaken one of their number. More often judges are the subject of abusive and threatening behaviour from the body of the court. Thankfully, counsel is rarely responsible because as a rule we restrict our rants to dreams and jokes. (What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50? … Your Honour.)

'IQ of 50...Your Honour'...I'll drink to that.

Those who bully judges, or try to, are usually prisoners. And they, of course, are powerless. While funny to watch it never ends well for the perpetrator. Remember, they are in a room built for bullying but they are not the bully.

Next time, some fine examples of prisoners back-chatting judges, including the best and funniest instance every recorded.