A tribunal judge has been issued with formal advice for misconduct after he issued a decision notice nearly four months after the hearing.
A complaint was made about a delay by Alex Hobbs, of the social security and child support tribunal, in issuing a decision notice following a child maintenance service tribunal hearing. The decision notice remained outstanding at the time of the complaint and was not provided until ‘nearly four months after the hearing’, a spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said.
Hobbs apologised to the parties and accepted responsibility for the delay.
The JCIO said: ‘He attributed the delay to pressure of work and acknowledged that he had not given the matter the priority it deserved. He also confirmed that he had taken steps to more clearly diarise decision notices to prevent similar delays in future.’ An investigation found the 16-week delay in issuing the decision notice amounted to misconduct.
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Hobbs' unblemished conduct record, remorse and demonstration of insight was noted by the investigation as well as his acceptance of responsibility, his apologies and the steps he had taken to prevent a delay happening again.
The investigation noted it ‘was not a case of excessive delay’ but found Hobbs had ‘failed to keep the parties informed, did not respond to multiple chaser emails from the tribunal, did not inform his leadership judge of the matter to request writing time, and that the decision notice was only produced after the complaint was made’.
The lady chief justice and the lord chancellor issued Hobbs with formal advice for misconduct, the least severe sanction for misconduct by judicial office-holders.
