Judge: Previous formal advice for same misconduct
A deputy district judge who took nearly three years to hand down a judgment would have been removed from office had she not resigned, according to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO).
Emily Windsor also failed to engage with the JCIO’s investigation into her conduct, which led the Lady Chief Justice, Baroness Carr, and Lord Chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, to take the unusual step of disagreeing with the sanction recommended by the investigating judge.
The JCIO reported that, in September 2023, solicitors complained on behalf of their client that DDJ Windsor had still not issued a written judgment following a trial in November 2021.
Following correspondence with the parties in spring 2023, she had stated she would send a draft judgment in the next few days but did not do so and then failed to respond to three further requests from the parties.
The investigating judge found that amounted to misconduct and recommended that she be issued with a reprimand.
However, Baroness Carr and Ms Mahmood decided instead to refer Ms Windsor to a disciplinary panel to consider removal from office, given the judge’s lack of engagement with the disciplinary process and the fact that the judgment remained outstanding at that time.
The disciplinary panel recommended that Ms Windsor be removed from office.
The JCIO said: “The panel took into consideration the fact that the former judge was issued with formal advice in 2019 for the delay of 12 months in issuing a judgment.
“It considered that the former judge had failed to respond to the parties or apologise and did not engage with the disciplinary process until the latter stages of the investigation.
“It acknowledged that there was some mitigation, in the former judge’s belated acceptance of responsibility, her personal circumstances and that the judgment had finally been produced after 32 months.”
Ms Windsor then submitted her resignation, but the Lord Chancellor and Lady Chief Justice exercised their discretion to continue to deal with the case and agreed that, had she not already resigned, she would have been removed from office.
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