Judge roundly slated, by the appeal courts! Options

[The Rookie]

In a fairly rare occurrence, the appeal court has been severely critical of a Judge's ineptness, the most you usually get is a mild reprimand, Judge Majid worked the immigration courts.

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKAITUR/2017/AA069062014.html

Paragraph 22 is refreshingly harsh!

It is clear this Judge was incapable of presiding over making a cup of tea let alone an immigration court with the implications of his fudgements that it carried.

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[StuartBu]

Anyone who reads much more than a fraction of that without losing the will to live has my utmost admiration !!😀😀😀

[seank]

I read it all and was shocked that such a person would be appointed to the judiciary.
Is there some means of removal, given the judge's "difficulties"?
No wonder we see such gross variation in outcomes if this is the standard.
A blind judge is one thing but an imbecilic one is more worrying.

[The Rookie]

We often talk of the county court lottery in the private parking forum, at least the CC lottery has reasonably understood rules and chances, that's a random number generator by comparison!

Para 47 contains a peach " nobody should assume that Judge Majid has an adequate knowledge of the law or of his task as a judge" Its easy to forget all the good bits after reading such a long list of errors, cockups and stupidity.

Been at it a while as well
https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/u...c/oa-20462-2013

145 appeals against his rulings here, quite a lot of upheld's, was nobody monitoring him?
https://tribunalsdecisions.service.gov.uk/u...%5Bclaimant%5D=

This post has been edited by The Rookie: Thu, 28 Sep 2017 - 12:06

[southpaw82]

Ouch. No doubt some scurrilous individuals will put 2 + 2 together (Majid + blind) and make 5 (appointed on diversity grounds).

[bama]

At least he wasn't faking entries in his Outlook diary so he could skive off.
(dig that one out with a search engine...)

[seank]

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/tribunal-s...5062979.article

In an extraordinary summary of Majid’s body of work, three Upper Tribunal judges said his rulings were ‘clearly open to criticism’ and, looked at together or individually, show that ‘nobody should assume that Judge Majid has an adequate knowledge of the law or of his task as a judge’

[DancingDad]

Ouch. No doubt some scurrilous individuals will put 2 + 2 together (Majid + blind) and make 5 (appointed on diversity grounds).

‘nobody should assume that Judge Majid has an adequate knowledge of the law or of his task as a judge’

Old Boys Club, Old School Tie, political expertise or patronage or a hefty payment to the right cause also come to mind given the comment above.

We often see sentences or judgements that seem odd, especially after the press have given their own spin on things.
But how does someone who seems so incompetent become a judge ?

[southpaw82]

Old Boys Club, Old School Tie, political expertise or patronage or a hefty payment to the right cause also come to mind given the comment above.

For appointment as an immigration judge? Hardly the Queen's Bench, is it?

[mickR]

He'd be more qualified as a X factor judge as that requires no qualifications it seems.

[DancingDad]

Old Boys Club, Old School Tie, political expertise or patronage or a hefty payment to the right cause also come to mind given the comment above.

For appointment as an immigration judge? Hardly the Queen's Bench, is it?

Noted but even the lowest grade of Judge (which I think is District Judge) have to have so many years as a practicing solicitor/barrister, 5 I believe.
Which would pre-suppose some knowledge of the law and proven ability which would (should?) prevent someone becoming a judge who could attract such derogatory comments from a tribunal looking at appeals of his cases.
But seemingly didn't.

[southpaw82]

Old Boys Club, Old School Tie, political expertise or patronage or a hefty payment to the right cause also come to mind given the comment above.

For appointment as an immigration judge? Hardly the Queen's Bench, is it?

Noted but even the lowest grade of Judge (which I think is District Judge) have to have so many years as a practicing solicitor/barrister, 5 I believe.
Which would pre-suppose some knowledge of the law and proven ability which would (should?) prevent someone becoming a judge who could attract such derogatory comments from a tribunal looking at appeals of his cases.
But seemingly didn't.

More of a failure of the JAC (assuming immigration judges go through JAC) than the old boys club at work then?

[The Rookie]

Appointment details in this link
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/tribunal-s...5062979.article
"Following publication of the ruling, a judicial spokesman said: 'There has been a complaint against Judge Majid, who is a fee-paid (part time) judge of the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).

'Within that jurisdiction, issues concerning conduct and discipline are in the first instance responsibilities of the Chamber President, Judge Michael Clements.'"

Looks like Judge Clements or his office dropped the ball on this one.

[seank]

In a bid to encourage more solicitors to become judges, the judiciary has widened a diversity support scheme to candidates with no litigation experience.

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/no-litigat...5062911.article

Due to the nature of the scheme, the 30 available places are limited to candidates from areas where the judiciary is significantly less representative of society - women, those from a less advantaged background, and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates.

[The Rookie]

So we will be lowering standards from those Judge Majid was apparently deemed to meet?

[seank]

So we will be lowering standards from those Judge Majid was apparently deemed to meet?

Reminiscent of Harperson's women-only selections?
I'm sure there are members of minorities who are competent, but to specifically select them seems discriminatory.
How can it not be discriminatory, by definition?

I look at Angela Rayner, the shadow MP for education. Selected from one of Harperson's women-only candidate panel.
Rayner left school, aged 15 and heavily pregnant.
She doesn't possess so much as a cycling proficiency certificate and says she "messed around at school, trying to disrupt classes"
She clearly values education, eh? Let's make her a shadow cabinet member responsible for education.

I sometimes look at appointments such as Rayner or Majid and think someone with a perverse sense of humour is taking the urine.

[SatNavSam]

I sometimes look at appointments such as Rayner or Majid and think someone with a perverse sense of humour is taking the urine.

Such is the state of the (uri) nation.

[Mad Mick V]

HH Judge Majid has been properly castigated but the problem lies much deeper within the GLS in dealing with immigration appeals.

My experience has been that there are a lot of "transients" employed in both TSol and the Tribunals. By transients I mean lawyers from places like Australia or Europe or newly graduated law students. The foreign lawyers never stick about very long and the new graduates see the GLS as a stepping stone to private firms which demand experience and a modicum of practical knowledge. Ergo retention of staff who could become highly experienced is crap.

The Home Department exacerbates this situation by "buying in" outside Counsel to defend immigration appeals so government lawyers are not being properly exposed to the rigours of a hearing/court. To be fair this might reflect the volume of casework.

These are the sort of people who will have advanced the skeleton arguments to HH Judge Majid, provided copious briefing and, perhaps, the line to take. His fault I know because the final judgements were his but I believe this case demonstrates that if GLS takes a cavalier attitude to recruitment, retention and training this is the sort of mess that is likely to occur--- it's not just about JAC.

Mick

[southpaw82]

It's not HH Judge Majid, he's not a circuit judge. It's simply Judge Majid (or Immigration Judge Majid).

Are GLS lawyers involved in immigration cases such as those put before Judge Majid? They're normally done by Presenting Officers, who I understood were employed by the Home Office and were not lawyers.

[Mad Mick V]

@southpaw82

You are correct, although the last judge I spoke to at tribunal was an HH because he brought that with him when he "retired" and took a part time position. I don't think Majid has that background.

You are also correct with the First Tier Tribunal being serviced by Home Department people which rather emphasises my point on the
vagaries of legal competence but also the issue of Majid's own people in the FTT not giving him adequate support.

A continuing part of the appeal process would be to seek judicial review and that's where the Home Department have been "laying off" cases to the Treasury Solicitors which gets their lawyers involved and which reverts back to my gripe that the "churn" of professional staff in both TSol and the Tribunals is not ideal.

Mick