Book Review
| Publication year | 2014 |
| Pages | 18 |
| Citation | Vol. 27 No. 6 Pg. 18 |
November, 2014
Bad judges
Cathy Roberts, Judge.
While this book will not be everyone's cup of Twinings, it may be the perfect gift for an eccentric, Anglophilic attorney, judge, or paralegal. It is a slender volume and the cost of shipping it from England will far exceed the cost of the book itself, but that just contributes to its weirdness.
An American may need a dictionary to translate British-isms such as "silk," "QC," and "set," but here are nutshell definitions: A "set" of chambers houses a group of barristers; a barrister who "takes silk" has been appointed by the Queen as her counsel ("QC"), and therefore wears silk robes. Taking silk is possible for the most experienced members of the bar, and, if the British television shows "Silk" and "Escape Artist" are to be believed, a very political matter.
The author, an English barrister, calls out three types of judges: the first includes those who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense. The second includes those whose misconduct occurred in court because of dislike of the advocates before them, because of dislike of the way the case is being conducted, or because of impatience or sheer boredom. The third includes messed up subordinate judicial appointments.
Bad English judges prefer being "boorish and rude to counsel," to having fistfights with public defenders in the hall, as a bad American judge has done. They have an "infelicitous lack of judgment." They rebuke counsel, call parties "fools" and "blockheads," and take over the questioning of witnesses before counsel on either side have a chance to conduct the case themselves. (I probably have been guilty as charged with the latter, although I don't remember calling anyone a blockhead.) Patient and attentive judges, by contrast, are like a "well-tuned cymbal," quoting Francis Bacon. As the cymbal is not usually played until the very end of a symphony, and usually for emphasis or dramatic effect, I suspect this author prefers judges who say little during the proceedings but bring everything to a rousing close.
However, when the cymbal is not well tuned, a Bad Judge may have the opposite effect. The author of Bad judges describes a judge's reaction to a young barrister's final argument:
"The Judge thereupon places his robed forearms on top of each other on the bench in front of him, and then his bewigged head on his forearms, and emits a loud groan...
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