In this
post I warned regulators to be ready to receive appellant justice from Mrs Justice Davies, the former Nicola Davies QC and former terror of healthcare regulators throughout the country. Almost immediately she courted controversy in quashing a decision of the Nursing and Midwifery Council to strike off a nurse instead of more properly remitting it back to the Council....the Court of Appeal have quashed Davies J on that point and remitted the case back to the Council....(
EUNICE OGBONNA v NURSING & MIDWIFERY COUNCIL (2010) CA (Civ Div) (Pill LJ, Rimer LJ, Black LJ) 5/10/2010)
The Court of Appeal will be kept busy by this former medical defence practitioner...I do think it odd that a QC who has famously spent most of her career defending medics against regulators should immediately on appointment start hearing appeals from regulators by said medics on appointment to the High Court bench....surely there is other less controversial work she could be found to do in the QBD??
Yes, you have to remit the matter back to the body charged with making the decision. Is there anything uncontroversial in the QBD? ... or in the Family Div. ... or in the Chancery Div? etc. Controversy goes with the territory IMHO.
ReplyDeleteI meant less controversial for this judge - i.e. any case not involving a medical regulator. I am sure she would be fine with a generally controversial but non-medical regulator case.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I see no problem with her going from defending to judging. There'd be no objection to a barrister who regularly prosecutes being appointed a circuit judge. In fact, HHJ Francis Sheridan was a well know prosecutor until he joined the bench. Equally, I don't see any grounds for complaint if a defence barrister went straight to the bench and began hearing criminal trials.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I've heard it said that former defence barristers turned judges give defendants a harder time... don't know if it's true though.
I would have hoped that a newly appointed judge would carry out his or her new job fairly and responsibly.