It is time to bring back respect for the judiciary along with everyone else involved in public service.

Medical staff are assaulted in emergency departments and teachers abused by parents and pupils.

Judges are in the same boat.

A properly functioning system of civil and family justice is a vital part of the state, and my experience from sitting as a district judge tells me that, unless those in the front line of the justice system are shown the respect due to the office they hold, then the very system of justice itself is diminished.

While most hearings pass off without incident and serious incidents are fortunately still isolated, judges have been the subject of physical attacks in court, attacks on their homes, verbal abuse in public places and deeply offensive abuse in writing, sometimes in postcards sent to the court and open for all to see.

Assault and abuse

Recent examples (and more seem to occur in family cases than in any other jurisdiction) have included physical assaults on judges in private hearing rooms; shouting abuse while approaching the bench in a threatening manner during the delivery of judgment; throwing a flammable liquid around a courtroom threatening to set it alight; death threats from a prisoner; and demonstrations at judges’ homes.

A litigant recently stormed out of court just as I had given judgment, referring to the decision in very earthy terms and slamming the door so aggressively that people a hundred yards away wondered whether a shot had been fired.

Of course, there is the power to commit to prison when the conduct amounts to contempt. But committal in these circumstances is rare where civil and family cases are involved.

Most judges recognise that the litigation, particularly in family cases involving children, is extremely stressful and often brings out the worst in the parties. There is a tendency to ignore all but the most extreme behaviour.

Criticism of judges’ decisions, whether by an appeal court, by the press, by members of the public or by the government, is all part and parcel of a free society, and rightly so.

But it seems to me important that such criticism should be expressed in appropriate terms, particularly when comments come from those holding high public office.

If those in such a position openly criticise decisions of the courts in unmeasured terms, what does that say to the rest of us about due respect to the justice system and the judicial office?

Some would go further and point to those who walk into a hearing room as if they owned it, take off their jackets without a by-your-leave, lean back in their seats almost to tipping point with their legs crossed and refer to the judge as ‘Guv’ (other variations have included in my experience ‘darlin’ and ‘Your Majesty’ – but who could complain?).

No magic answers

Perhaps all this is just another symptom of the kind of problem that successive governments have been attempting to tackle, with only limited success, by inventing anti-social behaviour orders and anti-social behaviour injunctions, and now gang injunctions.

There are no magic answers, but what it seems to me is needed is continued tolerance and understanding, certainly, coupled perhaps with the willingness to act more firmly when the line is crossed.

This article is not meant as a whinge from the bench.

It was intended more as an expression of concern that society today may be losing some of the values that past generations have regarded as important.

That is a pity and it is not always easy to cope with.

District Judge Paul Mildred is the new President of the Association of Her Majesty’s District Judges, Bournemouth Combined Court Centre