(Pictured: Mr Justice David Barniville. Photo: Collins)
by Fionnuala Walsh
Violence in Irish courtrooms and disruptive behaviour toward judges and court staff has gotten “way, way worse” in the last three years, the President of the High Court has said.
Mr Justice David Barniville also said that judges are “humans like others” and are “not immune” to the effects of hearing often graphic and traumatic evidence, particularly in the Central Criminal Court where the overwhelming majority of cases heard now relate to sexual offences.
Such is the reality of these trials that a “simple murder case” without distressing evidence can be seen as “light relief”, he says.
Mr Justice Barniville said he wants to see members of the judiciary have the option to reach out for counselling or psychological support as part of their job and for the desire for such help to “not be seen in any way as a sign of weakness”.
“A happy judge is a good judge,” he notes.
In December of last year, Mr Justice Barniville placed a notice on the Courts Service website concerning the “increasing number of incidents of extremely disruptive and, on occasions, violent conduct in court by some litigants in person and their supporters”.
Mr Justice Barniville says that there is heightened concern amongst judges across all levels of the courts system over safety and security issues.
He raised the example of a District Court judge who was attacked and hospitalised during court proceedings. “That was a very, very, difficult, traumatic situation for her,” he says.
He said the range of intimidation, including death threats, has affected both judges and officers of the court alike.
“We’ve had judges being jostled in the corridors of the Four Courts by organised groups. We’ve got a litigant in person seeking to effect a citizen’s arrest on a solicitor when the court was at hearing, requiring the involvement of gardai.
“We have judges receiving death threats, we’ve got people believing that they can act however they like in court; shouting, abusing, throwing things at the registrar, other courts staff and at the judge.
“All of those create stresses and pressures; for whatever reason some people feel they can act with impunity.”
He said that it is “absolutely without doubt” that instances of disruptive behaviour directed toward judges and court staff have increased in the Irish courts.
“Without doubt in the last two to three years, that has got way, way, way worse.”
“Judges shouldn’t have to come to work and be concerned about actual violence directed to them or the court staff,” he says.
He said that although people generally behave “perfectly” in court, there are an increasing number of judges who are exposed to threatening behaviour. Mr Justice Barniville said that while at present this has not involved large numbers of people, it also is not “just one or two”.
The judge said he also has a “lot of sympathy” for court gardai.
“The guards don’t often know that this is going to kick off, and there needs to be better systems to ensure that if certain well-known people are going to be in court on a particular day, that there is notification and the guards are there in case anything does.
“The laws aren’t quite as extensive as you would like them to be in order to address a situation like that and contempt of court isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the only way of dealing with situations.”
He said the courts also have to face the spectre of disruption in the form of unqualified individuals preying on the vulnerable by claiming they can assist in their case.
“Some of these people do go and take money off very vulnerable people, pretending that they can help them in a legal situation, when of course they have absolutely no training at all.
“They’re simply exploiting vulnerable people”.
This can often compound the difficulties of those who find themselves before the court, he says.
“They think by paying a sum of money to a particular individual – who is not a lawyer and has no legal qualifications but who does have a particular skill at being disruptive and violent – that that in some way will help their situation.
“But of course it won’t, it will make it even worse for them.”
‘Humans like any others’
Mr Justice Barniville said that the Judicial Council’s Support and Wellbeing Committee, which is chaired by Ms Justice Aileen Donnelly, a judge of the Supreme Court, has worked hard to help judges.
However, he noted the perception that seeking out support denotes a failing can act as a barrier.
“I suppose one thing you kind of have to remember is that nobody, particularly judges, wants to be seen to be seeking help or assistance,” he said.
“You might think, and judges certainly themselves think, that if they do that it’s a sign of weakness; it in some way diminishes the authority and the respect that people would have for them in the courtroom, where after all, they are supposed to have a lot of authority and a lot of respect and people need to have confidence in them.
“So one of the factors that militates against judges acknowledging that they might have an issue or that they might require support is that, if they do, that it may be seen as a sign of weakness.”
“It’s probably the main reason why people were very slow to recognise this was an issue, because even saying it’s an issue in some way is seen by some, or seen by most, as kind of diminishing their authority, diminishing the kind of position they should be seen to have in society.
“To say that a judge is human and a judge is affected by stress and these kinds of things can be portrayed in a very negative way against the person, but of course that is completely wrong because they are still humans like others.
“And that’s why I think, not just here but elsewhere, people were slow to recognise that this is a real problem and that by recognising it’s a problem across the board that it shouldn’t in any way lead to kind of a reduction or diminution of the respect and standing that an individual judge and the judiciary in general has.”
He said: “You should not have a situation where, as they have had in some countries, the pressure on judges has become so great that the judge commits suicide.
“You want to make sure that nobody feels that they are driven to such a situation because of the absence of support in place.”
Mr Justice Barniville said that a ‘Wellbeing Strategic Action Plan’ aims to improve support available to his colleagues, with a group currently working on identifying a provider for these services.
The plan includes induction for newly appointed judges – appraising them of what to expect in courtrooms and how to cope with issues that might arise. They also receive training in how to deal with traumatic evidence and techniques to help in de-stressing before and after hearing difficult cases.
The plan aims to promotes an environment where judges can talk to colleagues who have similar experiences. It also provides for individual psychological counselling on a confidential basis for judges who require it.
Another key aim of the plan is a desire to better inform the public about what judges do.
Mr Justice Barniville said that this not to generate sympathy for judges, but rather to give people a better understanding of what the role of a judge actually is.
He said it is hoped that people may be less likely to be personally critical and thus more understanding of the fact that everyone is affected by the difficult nature of court hearings and that judges are no different.
“A simple murder case is seen as light relief”
Mr Justice Barnivlle said that although members of the judiciary remain “extremely robust and resilient”, others, when given the opportunity of speaking more about it, did confide to being affected by the pressures of the role.
“We can’t really bring it home to our families because it’s so awful some of these facts and we don’t want to be upsetting them with these things, so some of them were internalising it.”
He noted that judges across all divisions of the Irish courts have to deal with cases involving graphic and traumatic evidence.
The High Court president said: “Those who have to hear that evidence – whether they’re on the jury, the lawyers involved, witnesses, parties to the case or whether they’re the judge: it affects perhaps everybody in the same way.”
“Certainly, I know my colleagues who sit in the Central Criminal Court, by far the bulk of the cases that they have to deal with are sex cases, historical sex cases – rape cases in particular – some extending back over many, many years.
“And for them a simple murder case is seen as light relief, because it doesn’t have some of the awful other things that they see in the cases that they deal with. So judges are not immune to the effects of these difficult cases.”
He said that the criminal courts are not the only sector where judges are exposed to difficult, emotional situations, noting that family law and repossession cases are often very challenging.
He said that in addition to the traumatic evidence, judges face the pressure of high caseloads and the attention that comes with dealing with difficult cases that are open to extensive public scrutiny and comment in the media.
Mr Justice Barniville points out that a judge’s acceptance of a high-pressure vocation does not diminish the difficulties they may face:
“People might say ‘that’s their job, they applied for it, that’s the job they do’. Again all that’s correct of course, but it doesn’t necessarily make it any less difficult for them when they are doing it.
He cites the numerous demands a judge faces on a daily basis: “The heavy caseload, the pressure to get stuff done quickly; of a backlog of judgments; of hearing your cases in public, deciding matters of important public interest where there would be legitimate differences in public opinion and therefore criticism of the judge [and] criticism of the judgment.
“All of that of course is intensified by social media and where people feel free to comment as they like, sometimes personally, about judges.”
Mr Justice Barniville said that he would like to see a regime where judges and court staff are not exposed to violent behaviour and the conduct of disruptive litigants.
He said he would like to see the laws being such that this behaviour is not tolerated or permitted.
He said: “I would like to see there being a well-established system whereby they could seek counselling or psychological support when required as part of their job and where that would not be seen in any way as a sign of weakness by the judge, but rather it would be a sign of assisting the judge to do even better .
“A happy judge is a good judge; that is a judge who is better able to deal with a case before him or her, they’re better able to calmly deal with the evidence, rather than being overwhelmed by stress or pressure.”