A High Court judge has been issued with formal advice for misconduct after a 15-month delay in issuing her judgment.
A solicitor complained to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office in May 2024 that Mrs Justice McGowan had yet to issue her judgment following a hearing in April 2023, and had not updated the parties on when the judgment would be ready. The judge handed down her judgment in early February this year.
She accepted responsibility for the delay and apologised, acknowledged she had not organised her time effectively enough, a spokesperson for the JCIO said.
It added: ‘She has since reduced her commitments as she had realised that her workload was too great at the time. She had planned to complete the judgment in September 2024 but had not been able to do so as she needed to deal with an application to reopen submissions, filed by one of the parties.’
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An investigation, taking into account that the time attributed to dealing with the September 2024 application should not be counted, found there had been a 15-month delay in issuing judgment. This amounted to misconduct.
The lady chief justice, with the lord chancellor’s agreement, ‘noted that the judge had a previously unblemished disciplinary record’ and she was issued with formal advice.
Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office holders, in order of severity, are formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.
