Ben Nolan QC – Neil Wilby Media

Part-time judge faces Bar Standards complaint

At a remote case management hearing on Monday 14th December, 2020, an Employment Tribunal judge in Leeds was told that a serving West Yorkshire Police officer, Sergeant Umer Saeed has lodged a formal complaint against a well known Leeds barrister, Olivia Checa-Dover (writes Neil Wilby). It concerns a disputed account of a conversation between SgtContinue reading “Part-time judge faces Bar Standards complaint”

By Royal Warrant

A freedom of information request has revealed that there are 157 part-time judges sitting in the North Eastern Circuit, which encompasses court centres in Newcastle, Middlesbrough, York, Hull, Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield. The list includes seven district judges and one immigration judge. The Circuit has its own website (see here) and its current Leader isContinue reading “By Royal Warrant”

An affront to open justice

Last Friday I reported on an appeal judgment handed down in the Leeds Registry of the High Court of Justice (read more here). It was a civil claim in which the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police and his legal team were defeated by a Bradford GP and medico-legal practitioner, Dr Abdul Rashid. It wasContinue reading “An affront to open justice”

Senior judge dismisses complaint over Recorder’s ‘offensive’ tweet.

An appeal has been filed against a judgment given by Lady Justice Carr DBE following a complaint against Mr Recorder Nolan QC to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO). The complaint concerned a tweet posted on social media by the part-time, fee-paid judge in the late evening of 18th June, 2020: It appears that theContinue reading “Senior judge dismisses complaint over Recorder’s ‘offensive’ tweet.”

Did ‘bad apple’ taint the Thatcham barrel?

In March 2008, an investigation began into two Huddersfield brothers. Concerns about their extravagant lifestyle, following an anonymous tip-off, appeared to be the trigger for the police probe. At the subsequent trial in Bradford Crown Court in March, 2011, it emerged in evidence that Nadeem and Thazeem Khalid had exaggerated their earnings to obtain £968,000Continue reading “Did ‘bad apple’ taint the Thatcham barrel?”