Marilyn Stowe Blog

The judge and the bone of contention

This week I received a very nice email from a trainee solicitor in South Yorkshire who had read my post Justice with Courage: doing the legal laundry, and was enthused by it. It was very kind of him to write, and was much appreciated.

It is also heartening to see that there are young lawyers out there, filled with hope and confidence for the future, who are ready to face challenges in the name of Justice. What happens, however, when you are an older and more successful lawyer? One that has made it up the ladder, perhaps even to the highest level? What challenges do you face then? Are there any at all?

I think there are. Take kindness: that small voice from within. It stops you needlessly crushing someone else into the ground.  It keeps your pride in check and encourages humility.

It is all too easy to forget the road travelled and the people who have helped along the way. True, to show kindness to all requires special qualities. These are qualities that stand out in some great lawyers and are severely lacking in others.

I would argue that the ability to temper justice with mercy, while showing kindness and understanding, is surely the greatest personal reward for any lawyer at the height of the legal profession. And if you are blessed with so much more than everyone around you, shouldn’t you try and set the bar even higher?

Baron Pannick QC

All this rushed through my mind when I read the latest column by the brilliant Baron Pannick, QC in The Times this week. It was headlined, How temper tantrums and loss of judgment can dog a legal career.

Is there a lawyer out there who doesn’t stand in awe of Lord Pannick’s colossal achievements? Appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1992, he has appeared in more than 100 cases in the new Supreme Court, more than 30 cases in the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg and more than 30 cases in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. He also sits as a Deputy High Court Judge and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2008. There, he sits as a crossbencher, able to speak his mind as he is beholden to no political party. And as if all that isn’t enough… he writes a regular column in The Times, read by hundreds of thousands.

Recently I was speaking to an up and coming, Oxford-educated, award-winning fellow barrister, who told me that he is “completely in awe of Lord Pannick’s brain. He is on a different level to the rest of us”.

Quite a compliment from a lawyer who modestly tried, but failed to hide his own talents from me.

Lord Pannick is, rightly, lauded as an example of what can be achieved in the legal profession. So I was interested to read the following words he wrote about Beatrice Bolton, a lower-ranked judge:

“The Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice, who are now considering Bolton’s future on the Bench, should make sure that her new year’s resolution — “I will never sit in a court of law again” — is fulfilled.”

Her heinous crime, which warranted such piercing attention:  an outburst in a magistrates’ court, when answering a charge relating to her dog biting a neighbour’s sunbathing son.

It is important to note that in this case, there was a history of lengthy and very nasty neighbour dispute. The judge lashed out bizarrely when convicted, losing her self-control. When the verdict was announced, Beatrice Bolton walked out of the magistrates’ court shouting: “I’m going. It’s a f***ing travesty”.

Outside the courtroom, she told journalists:

“Do you want a statement? I’ll give you a statement: I have no faith in the justice system whatsoever. I will never sit in a court of law again. How can he [the judge] say that? How can he bloody say that?”

I read the case at the time and I agree that it wasn’t pretty. Her outburst was embarrassing. Worse, it may have put paid not only to her judicial career, but also her income, pension and irreparably, her good character. From now on, wherever she goes, she will be “dogged” (forgive the pun) for her behaviour as a result of her loss of self-control in court.

The doomed judge found out first-hand what it is like to appear in court and to be the victim of what she perceived to be an unjust verdict. Perhaps in the past her sentences were criticised. Maybe there are those who think she deserved her comeuppance. We don’t know.

However there is little doubt that the dispute with her neighbour and her appearance in court were, understandably, weighing far too heavily on Beatrice Bolton’s mind. There is no doubt at all that this judge reacted strangely and inappropriately to the guilty verdict, even if she did feel it was unfair.

A dog’s life

One thing I am absolutely certain of is that dogs have strong emotional effects on their owners. A dog owner myself, I once received a stern letter from my local Post Office branch accusing one of my dogs of biting a postman.

I stared at my beloved dog: a gorgeous but admittedly mischievous Briard (pictured above), with a tendency to wuff first but back off later. It was difficult to accept that the big softy who stared back at me was guilty of a vicious attack on a member of Her Majesty’s postal service. So I decided to dig deeper.

Following an exchange of correspondence and a chat with the postman in question, who later admitted that he had overreacted and had not been bitten at all, I received a retraction and apology from the Post Office. My Briard’s reputation was fully restored. Perhaps non-dog owners won’t understand why I went to so much trouble – but I am confident that fellow dog lovers will.

The highly charged reaction of the judge to her dispute with her neighbour, the police investigation, the worry of her court appearance, the verdict, her conviction, the impact for her future career and her need to stand up for her beloved dog, was certainly unacceptable. But ultimately, I think, it may also be understandable.

Perhaps there were additional factors in play. I don’t know. What I do know is that every one of us goes through periods of the greatest turmoil in our lives and no-one escapes.  Life is like that.

Beatrice Bolton’s reaction has now most likely finished off her career and lost her lucrative income, her pension and so on. She doesn’t need reminding of any of it.

Did she deserve to be named and shamed and have the whole ordeal dredged up weeks later, for all to read, courtesy of Lord Pannick’s pen?

I shall leave you to decide.