A bad judge!

What makes a bad judge? Or what makes a judge bad?, the definition or attributes of who a bad judge is may well defer from person to person depending on experiences a lawyer has faced before a judge and the resultant effect on the case.

It is also true that a good judge may once in a while have a bad day wherein his actions may not be consistent with his usual manner of conducting proceedings in court. This does not automatically make such a judge is a bad judge, it is when the act unfitting of a judicial officer is continuous and habitual on the part of a judge, then it is safe to say that such judge is a bad judge.

“The parts of a judge in hearing are four; to direct the evidence, to moderate length, repetition, or impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select and collate the material points or that which hath been said; and to give the rule or sentence. Whatsoever is above these is too much; and proceedeth either of glory and willingness to speak, or of impatience to hear or of shortness of memory, or of want of a staid and equal attention… but… let not the judge meet the cause halfway, nor give occasion for the party to say his counsel or his proofs were not heard.” Lord Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626) (Source; A Short Book of Bad Judges).

Simply put, a bad judge is one who takes over the conduct of proceedings from a legal practitioner representing his client. To further buttress this point, we would outline certain attributes of a good judge to understand ‘a bad judge’.

A good judge is one who is patient enough to listen to every side of the story and equally attentive i.e ‘a well tuned cymbal’ before passing a ruling, sentence, or judgment. The interference of an umpire must be necessary, desired and supervisory, and not meant to take over the proceedings from counsels.

A good judge is one who understands that he is not the most important person in the court but rather the litigants, as such, must not give the litigants the impression that their counsels are not given the free will to represent their interest adequately or satisfactorily. He is calm and dispassionate of his observation of witnesses while being examined in court and not descend into the arena and possibly have his vision clouded by the dust of the conflict.

Another attribute of a good judge is that he doesn’t form a view on a particular case at a very early stage and then find it difficult to change his mind thereafter. This happens were a judge in the words of Greer L.J. is “… greatly influenced by the unfavourable opinion he had formed” about a particular party very early in the proceeding and so tends to focus his attention towards the view already formed rather than analyse the facts and evidence as presented by both parties and then make a pronouncement.

Last but not least, a good judge is slow tempered, doesn’t get angry easily or for no just cause, he is not quarrelsome with advocates that appear before him, nor vindictive in action, nor violent in language, nor reign abuses openly in court on parties and counsels with words like ‘fools’ or ‘blockheads’ et al, without respect to the dignity of persons before him.

One thing we learn in practice as lawyers is to study the judge we appear before, there is nothing or little one can practically do as a lawyer to change a bad judge but there is a lot we can do in the manner a young lawyer approaches or conducts himself before such a judge. Ensure no matter the situation that your points are noted down in the courts record and not let the bad behaviour of a judge obstruct you from effectively representing your client.
“Bad judges, however few there may be, will always be a stain on the public perception of justice.”

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