A judge has been issued with formal advice for misconduct after a four month delay in signing off a final order in a family case. The complaint, against district judge Christopher Falvey, originally alleged an 11-month delay.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: ‘The guide to judicial conduct states that judicial office-holders are expected to display diligence and care in the discharge of judicial duties.’
Falvey said he had directed counsel to agree and file a draft order after the relevant hearing. When the draft order was unable to be agreed, he requested written submissions which were received in March 2024. He was able to consider the written submissions around mid-April, after being away, and signed off the order in August 2024.
The JCIO said: ‘District judge Falvey accepted that there had been a delay in signing off the order. He explained that this was due to other work pressures.’
Read more
An investigation found the judge was responsible for a delay in signing off the order of four months and three weeks and the nature of the proceedings was considered an aggravating factor. The judge had received a sanction of formal advice in 2017 for a delay in issuing a judgment.
The lady chief justice and the lord chancellor agreed that Falvey’s actions amounted to misconduct. Issuing him with formal advice, they took into account ‘the nature of the proceedings alongside the length of the delay for which he was responsible, his acceptance of responsibility and the fact his previous finding of misconduct took place around seven years before the circumstances leading to the complaint in this case’.
Formal advice is the least severe sanction issued for misconduct by judicial office-holders.
