The Lawyer forces judge 'bias' retrial

An article which appeared in The Lawyer has been instrumental in causing a retrial in a case of alleged judicial bias.

One of the five cases of judges accused of bias that were heard in the Court of Appeal recently relied heavily on an article which appeared in the 21 June edition of The Lawyer.

Bill Braithwaite QC, a part-time recorder, was accused of bias, primarily on the basis of his expressing "pronounced pro-claimant, anti-insurer views," in an article in The Lawyer.

This was the only ruling before the lord chief justice, Lord Bingham, the master of the rolls, Lord Woolf, and the vice-chancellor Sir Richard Scott, to be overturned.

The Court of Appeal ruled that judges should not feel obliged to step down from hearing a case because of their own religion, race, gender, age or their sexuality.



See Rozenberg page 9