Complaints about judges are increasing but most are dismissed, Judicial Conduct Commissioner Sir David Gascoigne says.
Sir David said in his annual report today that the number of complaints he dealt with about judges in the year to July had increased from 132 to 189.
This included 139 new complaints
and 50 carried over from the previous year, when 101 new complaints were laid.
The number of complaints against High Court judges increased from 19 to 44 and the Family Court from 13 to 27.
Complaints against District Court judges fell from 50 to 48.
Of the 189 complaints this year, 113 were dismissed, compared to the 80 dismissed in the previous year.
Sir David said most complaints were dismissed because they questioned the legality or correctness of a judgment.
The proper avenue to deal with such concerns was by way of appeal or judicial review, he said.
Other grounds for dismissal included complaints being frivolous or vexatious.
Four complaints were referred to the Head of Bench to deal with, compared to two in the previous year.
Grounds for complaint, aside from questioning a judge's decision, included rudeness, unfairness, inappropriate remarks, failure to listen, bias and predetermination.
The report did not include any detail on the nature of the complaints referred to the Heads of the Bench.
Nine complaints were withdrawn and none referred to a special judicial conduct panel, which is a process that can potentially result in judges being sacked or disciplined.
"In the view of the commissioner, none of the complaints that were dealt with raised issues of such gravity to justify such a recommendation," the report said.
Of the 189 complaints 63 were still not finalised at the end of the year.
- NZPA
