Magistrate reported to Lord Irvine

A LIVERPOOL solicitor is reporting a stipendiary magistrate to the Lord Chancellor in a furious row over a drugs case.
Robert Broudie of RM Broudie & Co says an attack made on him by magistrate John Finestein was "totally improper and inappropriate".
Finestein criticised Broudie in October for wasting legal aid by instructing a barrister to try to get a drug-dealing case dismissed.
Finestein said in court that "a first-year law student" would have known the man had a case to answer and went on: "Solicitors are given legal aid to properly pursue their clients' cases. There was ab-solutely no merit in pursuing this. It's ripping off the public."
However, the defendant, William Derkin, last week walked free after the prosecution admitted it had no evidence against him on a charge of conspiracy to supply cannabis.
Broudie says: "[Finestein] has now been proved completely wrong. I will be taking the appropriate action and reporting Finestein to the Lord Chancellor's office."