Latest / The Front / ‘Ashamed’: Judge Jackman fires up over court delays

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‘Ashamed’: Judge Jackman fires up over court delays · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Friday, June twelve, twenty twenty six. Treasurer Jim Chalmers
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  Speaker 1: is having a serious go at opposition leader Angus Taylor,
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  Speaker 1: saying Taylor was quote born at the top of the
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  Speaker 1: ladder and has fallen upwards. Chalmers also says attacks on
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  Speaker 1: the budget by Taylor and others come from a place
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  Speaker 1: of privilege. He suggests Pauline Hanson's One Nation is taking
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  Speaker 1: orders from her billionaire backer Gina Reinhart. Those stories alive
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  Speaker 1: right now at The Australian dot com dot au. A
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  Speaker 1: spectacular legal brawl between sitting judges. The speed of our
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  Speaker 1: legal system is coming under scrutiny, with some judges dithering
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  Speaker 1: for months or even years before handing down their rulings.
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  Speaker 1: And now Federal Court judge Ian Jackman is attacking some
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  Speaker 1: of his own colleagues and saying they're tardiness is threatening
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  Speaker 1: the rule of law. Janet al Brexon and Stephen Rice
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  Speaker 1: have the story, and Rice is here in just a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Stephen Rice is The Australian's new South Wales editor and
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  Speaker 1: he's reporting today on a spectacular judicial spray. We're used
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  Speaker 1: to judges having a crack at barristers or criminals from
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  Speaker 1: the bench. Justice Ian Jackman, who happens to be the
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  Speaker 1: brother of actor Hugh Jackman, is having a go not
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  Speaker 1: at parties in a case, but at his fellow judges.
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  Speaker 2: The egregious delays by some judges in delivering reserve judgments
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  Speaker 2: represent a real and growing threat to the rule of
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  Speaker 2: law in Australia.
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  Speaker 1: What's god his goat? Ricey?
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  Speaker 3: Well, as you say, what a spray God? I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I've been reporting on these courts for a couple of
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  Speaker 3: decades now and I've never seen something like this. So yeah,
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  Speaker 3: Ian Jackman has taken a huge shot at six of
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  Speaker 3: his fellow judges because of the extraordinary delays in these
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  Speaker 3: people delivering judgments. In the Federal Court says in its
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  Speaker 3: guidelines that judgments should be delivered within six months, and
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  Speaker 3: some of these judges are taking anywhere between two and
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  Speaker 3: a half and three years to deliver a judgment, and
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  Speaker 3: of course that creates enormous stress and cost for the
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  Speaker 3: parties involved. And Ian Jackman has just said enough is enough.
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  Speaker 3: I'm actually going to name and shame my colleagues who
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  Speaker 3: are doing this.
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  Speaker 1: And he's doing this not from the bench, where he
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  Speaker 1: would have the protection of the absolute privilege of a
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  Speaker 1: court room, which means that nobody could sue him for defamation.
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  Speaker 2: But in a speech, these delays represent a most regrettable
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  Speaker 2: state of affairs which many judges prefer to ignore.
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  Speaker 3: You're doing it in a speech to the Rule of
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  Speaker 3: Law Institute. It's pretty heavy stuff. And there was one
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  Speaker 3: judge in particular that he really gets stuck into. That's
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  Speaker 3: a judge called Kathy Farrell. Had a bit of a
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  Speaker 3: crack at her before for the delay in her judgments,
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  Speaker 3: But in this case, he's drawing attention to the fact
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  Speaker 3: that she spent two and a half years after hearing
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  Speaker 3: the case and then retired, resigned from the bench without
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  Speaker 3: ever delivering the judgment. And Ian Jackman got lumped with
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  Speaker 3: doing it. I've got to read you the comment that
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  Speaker 3: he made about us. So she's walked away, he says,
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  Speaker 3: she simply walked away in.
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  Speaker 2: A contented sunset of retirement on a full judicial pension
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  Speaker 2: and left it for someone else to be allocated the
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  Speaker 2: task of doing the work. Even if that judge hadn't
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  Speaker 2: been me. I would still be just as ashamed for
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  Speaker 2: the institution of the federal court.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. In that instance, I think the Chief Justice, Debrah
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  Speaker 1: Mortimer apologized to the parties, and I think there was
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  Speaker 1: an offer of costs made to those parties who had
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  Speaker 1: had to wait for so long. But yeah, the attack
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  Speaker 1: on Kathleen Farrell, I mean he made that when she
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  Speaker 1: was leaving the bench and when he was in a courtroom,
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  Speaker 1: so he was protected there. Who else is he having
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  Speaker 1: a crack at this time?
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  Speaker 3: He names six other judges, one of them in particular
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  Speaker 3: Bernard Murphy, who he says was involved in two cases,
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  Speaker 3: one that took him three and a half years to
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  Speaker 3: decide and another one involving is a class action brought
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  Speaker 3: by workers in a Domino's pizza. That case was heard
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  Speaker 3: three and a half years ago and it still hasn't
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  Speaker 3: been finalized. This judge has to retire by the end
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  Speaker 3: of this month because he turned seventy, and under the constitution,
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  Speaker 3: you know, federal judges have to retire by the time
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  Speaker 3: there's seventy. So these people have been waiting three and
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  Speaker 3: a half years. They must be hoping that, you know,
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  Speaker 3: he actually gets his act together in the next two
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  Speaker 3: weeks and delivers this judgment.
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  Speaker 1: Judges are, of course, as you say, required to do
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  Speaker 1: things in a timely matter. In fact, I went and
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  Speaker 1: checked out the Judicial Handbook on the Judicial Commission's website,
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  Speaker 1: and it quotes the Magna Carta, the document on which
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  Speaker 1: our entire legal system is founded, ricey saying to none
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  Speaker 1: will we sell, to none, will we deny or delay
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  Speaker 1: the right to justice? The Judicial Handbook makes the point
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  Speaker 1: that all of those elements, and especially delay, are incompatible
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  Speaker 1: with the proper administration of justice. There's another famous phrase,
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  Speaker 1: justice delayed is justice denied because often I can imagine
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  Speaker 1: if you were suing your employer in the case of
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  Speaker 1: the Dominoes workers, the jeopardy that you are placed in
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  Speaker 1: by being at legal odds with your employer is almost
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  Speaker 1: unimaginable for that. Then to drag on for years and
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  Speaker 1: years is even worse. This is almost so a crack
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  Speaker 1: at the Chief Justice, isn't it. I Mean, Debrah Mortemer
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  Speaker 1: did apologize in that case that we talked about before.
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  Speaker 1: But the Chief Justice's job is not just to be
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  Speaker 1: the grand poobar of the court. It is to keep
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  Speaker 1: her employees, the judges, moving and put pressure on them
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  Speaker 1: and that certainly does happen in various courts.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean after the Kathleen Farrell case, as
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  Speaker 3: you say, the Chief Justice, she actually sent a memo
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  Speaker 3: around to everybody, to all the judges on the bench, saying,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we've got to be collegiate. Well, you know,
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  Speaker 3: shut up in exactly, shut out of here. But you
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  Speaker 3: know he's taken a lot of notice of that, hasn't
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  Speaker 3: He didn't get that memo. But yes, it is the
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  Speaker 3: job of the Chief Justice to shepherd those judges into
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  Speaker 3: corral them into doing their job properly. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: part of the job is actually delivering speedy justice. And
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  Speaker 3: that's the whole point of what Ian Jackman is saying.
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  Speaker 3: He's not just having a crack at his fellow judges
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  Speaker 3: for the sake of but he's making an important point
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  Speaker 3: that the rule of law. And he is a kind
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  Speaker 3: of a black letter lawyer, but part of the foundation
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  Speaker 3: of our justice system is that people get justice delivered
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  Speaker 3: within a reasonable time frame, not just because it involves
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  Speaker 3: a huge amount of stress and cost for those people,
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  Speaker 3: but because the system generally relies on people having faith
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  Speaker 3: that the legal system is going to act in a
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  Speaker 3: way that's predictable and timely.
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  Speaker 2: Access to the courts is not just the matter of
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  Speaker 2: being able to put one's case to a judge. It's
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  Speaker 2: obviously also a question of the effective and timely administration
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  Speaker 2: of the law by way of obtaining a decision.
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  Speaker 1: The Federal Court publishes judgments by time, so you can
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  Speaker 1: see what was published today, what was published in the
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  Speaker 1: past week, what was published in the past thirty days.
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  Speaker 1: So I had a look at who's been busy and
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  Speaker 1: who hasn't, and just as Ian Jackman, I note has
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  Speaker 1: done five judgments in the past thirty days, according to
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  Speaker 1: the Federal Court's website. Now that's a pretty good rate.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, he is working pretty fast. I would say
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  Speaker 1: he would want to be.
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  Speaker 3: Up knowing that he's going to deliver a slam, don't.
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  Speaker 1: But they're not on their own. I mean they have
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  Speaker 1: associates who often actually write the judgments for them with
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  Speaker 1: the guidance of the judge. And often those associates are,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the bright young things fresh out of law school,
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  Speaker 1: and working for a judge is the way you fast
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  Speaker 1: track your career as a young lawyer.
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  Speaker 3: There's a very prized role to become an associate especially
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  Speaker 3: of a federal or high court judge.
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  Speaker 1: Our judicial system goes a long way to protect judges.
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  Speaker 1: Their identity is protected with wigs and gowns often in
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  Speaker 1: many jurisdictions, and that's a way of trying to keep
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  Speaker 1: them safe, giving them some sort of distance from the
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  Speaker 1: people who are in front of them in the courtroom,
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  Speaker 1: making them less recognizable on the street, and also increasing
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  Speaker 1: this kind of sense of majesty that they have. But
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  Speaker 1: they are human beings, of course, going through all the
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  Speaker 1: things that we're all going through and finding work stressful.
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  Speaker 1: They are often also having cracks at one another. There's
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  Speaker 1: been an interesting dispute going on in an obscure kind
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  Speaker 1: of constitutional society where judges are firing up left, right
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  Speaker 1: and center. What's going on there?
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  Speaker 3: I think there must be something in the air at
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  Speaker 3: the moment, as this came up only a couple of
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  Speaker 3: weeks ago. So this particular case came up when a
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  Speaker 3: High Court judge called Robert Beach Jones made a speech
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  Speaker 3: suggesting that this rather conservative law society, the Samuel Griffith Society,
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  Speaker 3: was trying to stack the courts with right wing jurists,
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  Speaker 3: and that did not go down well with the Samuel
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  Speaker 3: Griffith Society and unfortunately for Justice Robert Beach Jones. The
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  Speaker 3: president of the Samuel Griffith Society is a guy called
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  Speaker 3: Alan Myers, who is probably the wealthiest barrister in Australia
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  Speaker 3: if he owns large swathes of the Northern Territory. He
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  Speaker 3: is not afraid to say exactly what he thinks, even
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  Speaker 3: about High Court judges, and he told Robert bach Jones
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  Speaker 3: literally to stay out of politics and stick to the
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  Speaker 3: job of deciding cases according to the law. Now that's
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  Speaker 3: pretty full on for embarrasster to say that to a
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  Speaker 3: High Court judge.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned this concept of black letter law before in
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  Speaker 1: relation to Ian Jackman, and it's kind of about that idea,
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  Speaker 1: isn't it. Black Letter law, on one hand, is the
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  Speaker 1: philosophy that judges should just stick to the legislation, don't
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  Speaker 1: go creative, don't try to make up some new rules
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  Speaker 1: for yourself. I think judges who would consider themselves more
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  Speaker 1: progressive think, well, it's actually my job to interpret legislation
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  Speaker 1: in a modern context. And you know you can't just
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  Speaker 1: rely on the words of one hundred year old statute.
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  Speaker 1: You need to apply common sense and modern sensibilities this
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  Speaker 1: big divide in law, and there are sort of twenty
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  Speaker 1: seven different factions within each of those sides. The Samuel
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  Speaker 1: Griff Society's job, as it sees it, is to help
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  Speaker 1: law students understand why black letter law is important. Right?
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  Speaker 1: Is that basically right?
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  Speaker 3: I think so? Yeah. Again, it goes back to this
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  Speaker 3: idea that you need certainty in the law. People need
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  Speaker 3: to be able to know what the law is so
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  Speaker 3: that they can work out what they're going to do
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  Speaker 3: with their particular in business, you know, how they're going
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  Speaker 3: to arrange their tax affairs, their superannuation. People need to
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  Speaker 3: know what the law is. So there's a very good
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  Speaker 3: argument for not just changing it on the whim of
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  Speaker 3: a judge. But in this particular case, Alan Myers really
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  Speaker 3: had quite a shot at this particular High Court judge
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  Speaker 3: and said, just do your job as a judge. And
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  Speaker 3: what he meant was, don't stray into these kind of
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  Speaker 3: areas of politics like this, just do your job.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, that is a critique that you could apply
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  Speaker 1: to Ian Jackman, couldn't you. It's like, we'll just sit
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  Speaker 1: in the court and hand down the judgments, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you think that someone else has gone too slowly. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you just go fast and do your job correctly. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: does it diminish the, as we say, majesty of the
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  Speaker 1: judiciary to have them taking cracks at each other in public.
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  Speaker 3: I think sometimes it does. But I think in the
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  Speaker 3: case of Ian Jackman, I don't think that we're seeing
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  Speaker 3: that kind of political drama play out. What we're seeing
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  Speaker 3: with him is a strong and I think will place
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  Speaker 3: conviction that judges just need to be doing their job
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  Speaker 3: and doing it speedily. And I don't think that's a
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  Speaker 3: case so much where politics comes into it. He just
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  Speaker 3: wants to see judges doing their job in a timely fashion.
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  Speaker 2: Who will protect the rule of law from its protectors.
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  Speaker 2: Public scrutiny is one of the best antidotes to complacency,
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  Speaker 2: and complacency almost always leads to failure.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'd kill to be a fly on the wall
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  Speaker 1: in a federal courtea room this morning, RISI thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much, Thank you. Stephen Rice is The Australian's new
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  Speaker 1: South Wales editor. You can read his and Janet scoop
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  Speaker 1: right now at the Australian dot com dot au