A former deputy district judge who took 32 months to hand down a judgment would have been removed from office had she not resigned.
In September 2023, solicitors complained on behalf of their client that deputy district judge Emily Windsor, as she was, had not issued a written judgment following a trial in November 2021.
Following correspondence with the parties in April and May 2023, Baker said she would send a draft judgment in the next few days. She later failed to respond to three further requests from the parties in June and August 2023.
An investigation found Baker’s failure to issue the judgment amounted to misconduct and recommended she be issued with a reprimand.
The lady chief justice and the lord chancellor referred the matter to a disciplinary panel to consider removal from office following Baker’s ‘lack of engagement with the disciplinary process and the fact that the judgment remained outstanding at that time’.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: ‘The panel took into consideration the fact that the former judge was issued with formal advice in 2019 for the delay of twelve months in issuing a judgment.
‘It considered that the former judge had failed to respond to the parties or apologise and did not engage with the disciplinary process until the latter stages of the investigation when she was made aware of the panel’s recommendation. It acknowledged that there was some mitigation, in the former judge’s belated acceptance of responsibility, her personal circumstances and that the judgment had finally been produced after thirty-two months.’
Baker submitted her resignation. The lord chancellor and lady chief justice exercised their discretion to continue to deal with the case, the JCIO said.
It added: ‘They agreed that the former judge’s actions amounted to misconduct and that had she not already resigned, she would have been removed from office.’
This year, the JCIO has published five statements in relation to judicial misconduct over judgment, order and transcript delays varying in time from five months to 15.
