The defendant a litigant in person sought to stay his appeal. He asked the court to stay his appeal so that he could get legal aid, and to encourage the LSC to grant legal aid.
Held: The court refused. The defendant asserted that courts would be biased toward any side where a lawyer was employed, and that litigants in person were accordingly never successful. In the face of such criticism, it might be tempting for a judge to recuse himself, but it would lead parties to be tempted to criticise judges in an attempt to secure one who might be favourable to them.
Chadwick LJ said in declining to recuse himself said: ‘It is always tempting for a judge against whom criticisms are made to say that he would prefer not to hear further proceedings in which the critic is involved. It is tempting to take that course because the judge will know that the critic is likely to go away with a sense of grievance if the decision goes against him. Rightly or wrongly, a litigant who does not have confidence in the judge who hears his case will feel that, if he loses, he has in some way been discriminated against. But it is important for a judge to resist the temptation to recuse himself simply because it would be more comfortable to do so. The reason is this. If judges were to recuse themselves whenever a litigant — whether it be a represented litigant or a litigant in person — criticised them (which sometimes happens not infrequently) we would soon reach the position in which litigants were able to select judges to hear their cases simply by criticising all the judges that they did not want to hear their cases. It would be easy for a litigant to produce a situation in which a judge felt obliged to recuse himself simply because he had been criticised — whether that criticism was justified or not. That would apply, not only to the individual judge, but to all judges in this court; if the criticism is indeed that there is no judge of this court who can give Mr Dobbs a fair hearing because he is criticising the system generally. Mr Dobbs’ appeal could never be heard.’
Judges:
Chadwick LJ, Neuberger LJ, Longmore LJ
Citations:
[2005] EWCA Civ 468, Times 11-May-2005
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Triodos Bank, Dobbs, Acorn Televillages Limited v Dobbs and Others ChD 19-Apr-2004
. .
Appeal from – Triodos Bank Nv v Dobbs and Another ChD 8-Feb-2005
. .
Cited by:
See Also – Triodos Bank Nv v Dobbs (No 2) CA 24-May-2005
The bank sought payment under a guarantee given by the appellant. The appellant said that the original loan agreement had been varied so as to release him. The loan had been taken out to support a business venture. After the guarantee was signed a . .
Cited – Otkritie International Investment Management and Others v Urumov CA 14-Oct-2014
The claimants brought proceedings against several defendants. There had been a series of hearings conducted by a single judge leading to findings that several defendants had been involved in a fraud. The defendants sought recusal of that judge . .
Cited – Henry v London Metropolitan University EAT 19-Sep-2006
EAT The Appellant was found by the Tribunal to have been victimised and discriminated against in three respects; in two cases at the hands of Mr Williams who commenced disciplinary proceedings against him and in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice
Updated: 30 June 2022; Ref: scu.224781