Hostile judges

Hi All,

What are you supposed to do once a judge takes an intense dislike to you? It seems pretty bleak to me right now, my main avenue of hope is that the judge will award against me so disgracefully that it will open things up to appeal. But presumably even if I manage to do that (not easy, I know), then I guess in most cases it will be batted back to the same judge to think again? Help! Do these people ever change jobs or circuits? Here''s hoping....!

You could try wearing a dress :laugh

What makes you think the judge is hostile?

Is there anything in particular that you may have said or done to trigger this?

If you are on the back foot with the judge, you may need to review the way you are approaching things.

Hadenoughnow

I thought you never had the same judge twice. I had 1st, 2nd and Final hearings and each time was a different Judge. My Barrister told me I wouldn''t have the same one next time!

I annoyed him by not showing up to a hearing. It was listed in my dates to avoid, so I spoke to the court, who told me not to worry and it would be relisted. It wasn''t. Despite me providing lots of evidence as to why I couldn''t attend and the huge efforts I made to relist the hearing, he took it as a slight against him personally, and has been quite brutal in his approach to me ever since. I thought he might forget about it after a while but we''re almost a year later now and he''s still openly hostile towards me. On the occasions I have been represented by counsel they''ve found it shocking.

Unfortunately he''s reserved matters in our proceedings (children and finances) to him so no escape.

Make an official complaint?

Yes I''m tempted to complain, but I''ll have to wait until after proceedings are over. Not that I have a lot to lose!