You must provide the following (your complaint will not be accepted if you do not provide these details):
- Your name & address
- Name of the judicial office holder about whom you wish to complain
- The date of when the matter you wish to complain about occurred
- Specific details of what you wish to complain about. If you feel that a judge was rude, you will need to explain what was said or done by the judge that you felt was rude; providing examples of the language used or behaviour shown.
It will also assist us if you can provide the following:
- The court where the hearing took place (if applicable)
- The relevant case number (if applicable)
- The time of the hearing or incident
- Details of any third parties who may have witnessed, or be able to support, your complaint (depending on the nature of your complaint it may be necessary for us to seek the views of any third parties who were present)
The examples below show some statements that do not provide enough information for us to investigate. Opposite each example is a similar statement which goes on to explain the sort of supporting information we would require to investigate your complaint.
Please note – the statements below are to illustrate the level of detail required. They should not be considered as definitive examples of the type of behaviour which could amount to personal misconduct by a judicial office holder
We also cannot accept generalised complaints or complaints based on supposition, e.g. “I think the judge is a racist because he dismissed my case” or “I think the judge was rude because he said he didn’t believe my evidence”.
We can only accept complaints which contain a specific allegation of behaviour that, if true, could result in a finding of misconduct.