Locabail (UK) Ltd v Bayfield Properties Ltd
Guidance on when a judge should stand down because of a connection with a party or a case, giving rise to apparent bias.
Facts
Five applications to the Court of Appeal raised the question of when a judge should be disqualified for apparent bias. In one case, a deputy High Court judge who was a solicitor had heard a case in which his firm was acting for a company that was a creditor of one of the parties, although he did not know of the connection at the time. In another, a recorder had written articles strongly criticising insurers, and then heard a case against an insurer.
Legal principle
The Court of Appeal gave guidance on apparent bias. It said that it would be dangerous and futile to attempt to define or list the factors that might give rise to a real danger of bias, but that objection could not generally be based on a judge's religion, ethnic or national origin, gender, age, class, means or sexual orientation, or on the judge's social, educational, service or employment background, or membership of social, sporting or charitable bodies. Bias might be found where there was personal friendship or animosity between the judge and a party, where the judge had expressed views in extreme and unbalanced terms on a relevant issue, or where the judge had a close connection with someone involved in the case. In the case of the recorder who had criticised insurers, his published views were so strongly expressed that a retrial was ordered.
Related cases on judiciary, legal profession and access to justice
- Airey v Ireland (1979) 2 EHRR 305
- Arthur J S Hall & Co v Simons [2002] 1 AC 615
- Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd v Dring [2019] UKSC 38, [2020] AC 629
- Helow v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2008] UKHL 62, [2008] 1 WLR 2416
- Jones v Kaney [2011] UKSC 13, [2011] 2 AC 398
- Lawal v Northern Spirit Ltd [2003] UKHL 35, [2004] 1 All ER 187
- Medcalf v Mardell [2002] UKHL 27, [2003] 1 AC 120
- R (Gudanaviciene) v Director of Legal Aid Casework [2014] EWCA Civ 1622, [2015] 1 WLR 2247
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