Guernsey Law Reports 2005-06 GLR Note 31
BURTON v. LAW OFFICERS OF THE CROWN
ROYAL COURT (Collas, Deputy Bailiff): September 6th, 2006
Courts—récusation—bias
The appellant was convicted in the Magistrate’s Court of sending menacing telephone messages to the Deputy Sheriff. Prior to the hearing, the assistant magistrate indicated that she knew the Deputy Sheriff purely in a working capacity. The appellant appealed on the ground that there was an appearance of bias arising from this working relationship, and the assistant magistrate should therefore have recused herself; he also sought to have the verdict set aside and the case re-heard by a judge from the United Kingdom. Since the Deputy Bailiff was to hear the appeal, the appellant also applied for him to recuse himself, on the basis that, as deputy head of the judiciary, he shared in the overall responsibility for the administration of justice in Guernsey, including the operation of H.M. Sheriff’s Department, and there would be apparent bias as a result, which, the appellant argued, breached his right to a fair trial.
Held: (1) The substantive appeal and the applications for récusation would be dismissed. If apparent bias were alleged on the part of a judge, the court would first have to ascertain all the circumstances which evidenced that bias, or which refuted it. The test then to be applied was whether, in those circumstances, a fair-minded, informed observer would conclude that there was a real possibility, or real danger, of bias (In re Medicaments & Related Classes of Goods (No. 2), [2000] 1 W.L.R. 700, dicta of Lord Phillips, M.R. applied). An appellate judge was easily able to assume the viewpoint of the fair-minded and informed observer: here, bearing in mind the Deputy Bailiff’s professional training and the judicial oath sworn, any prejudices arising from working relationships with officers of a lower court or with witnesses would be set aside when judging a case (A.W.G. Group Ltd. v. Morrison, [2006] 1 W.L.R. 1163, dicta of Mummery, L.J. applied; R. v. Mirza [2004] 1 A.C. 1118, dicta of Lord Rodger of Earlsferry applied). Similarly, the assistant magistrate would be able to act impartially when hearing evidence from someone she knew in a professional capacity.
(2) On a small island such as Guernsey, it is inevitable that court officers will know each other professionally—and not to allow an appeal judge to sit solely because of a concern of apparent bias arising from his working relationship with officers of lower courts would cause difficulty in the administration of justice, though this difficulty would not be a reason to allow a judge to sit on appeal if there were in fact a reasonable possibility of bias on his part.
2009
Law Report
None
Guernsey Law Reports 2005-06 GLR Note 31