An employment tribunal judge has been issued with formal advice for misconduct after she issued two case management orders months after the respective hearings.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office received two complaints that employment judge Laura Howden-Evans had not yet issued case management orders in two separate cases. When she was told of the complaints, Howden-Evans issued the case management orders - four and five months after the respective hearings.
The judge, in her representations, apologised for the delay.
A spokesperson for the JCIO said Howden-Evans ‘explained that in one case, the delay had arisen through an oversight’ while in the second case ‘there were several factors in the case which made it more difficult to finish the case management order within standard timeframes’.
An investigation found that the delay in issuing the case management orders in each case meant Howden-Evans had ‘failed to discharge her judicial duties with diligence and care, which amounted to misconduct’.
The investigation noted the judge’s acceptance of the delays ‘from the outset’, that she ‘voluntarily' provided written apologies to both complainants, and rectified the lack of case management orders after being notified of the complaints’ as well as her previously unblemished record.
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The lady chief justice, with the lord chancellor’s agreement, issued Howden-Evans with formal advice for misconduct. Sanctions for misconduct by judicial office-holders are, in order of severity, formal advice, formal warning, reprimand and removal from office.
