Complaints Against Judicial Conduct

Only Pursuable Complaints against judicial conduct ("Pursuable Complaints") will be handled under the complaint mechanism***.

Having regard to the principle of judicial independence, since a judicial decision is made by a judge** in the course of independent adjudication, a complaint against the decision cannot be entertained. Anyone who feels aggrieved by a judge’s decision can only appeal (where this is available) through the existing legal procedures.

Please refer to paragraph 3.3 of the pamphlet Complaints Against Judicial Conduct* for information on non-pursuable complaints.

Repeated complaints (that have already been dealt with before) will not be considered unless there are new substantive grounds or evidence submitted.

A complaint against judicial conduct should only be made in writing and sent to Secretariat for Complaints against Judicial Conduct ("SCJC"). To make a complaint, you may fill in the standard complaint form* with supporting documents. The correspondence address of the SCJC is:

Secretariat for Complaints against Judicial Conduct
High Court Building, 38 Queensway, Hong Kong

Please note that the provision of your name and correspondence address is obligatory, failing which the complaint will not be processed further.

Please set out your complaint clearly and succinctly. You should provide the relevant background and particulars.

In general, you should include in your complaint:

1. the name of the judge, the court concerned, the date and case number;
2. a description of the conduct of the judge you wish to complain of, giving all relevant particulars (specific details of the incidents such as the date of the incident and what was said or done); and
3. other information or copies of documents relevant to the complaint.

Points to note:

• The Judiciary is not under any obligation to seek further information on the complaint.
• The original of the complaint and any materials provided will be at the disposal of the Judiciary and will not normally be returned to the complainant.
• The information provided in the complaint may be disclosed to any party concerned (including the judge being complained of) for the purpose of processing this complaint. Your refusal to allow us to do so may result in our not being able to process the complaint.

Only Pursuable Complaints will be further investigated by relevant Action Judge(s). Please refer to Annex A of the pamphlet Complaints Against Judicial Conduct* for the list of Action Judge(s).

Pursuable Complaints which are serious, complex or have drawn wide public attention, or Pursuable Complaints against specific judges

Pursuable Complaints which are serious or complex or those drawing wide public attention will be handled by a Panel of Judges comprising more than one judge of High Court level (the "Panel of Judges"). The Advisory Committee on Complaints against Judicial Conduct ("Advisory Committee") , which meets on a regular basis, will review the investigation reports from the Panel of Judges. After considering the advice of the Advisory Committee, the Chief Justice will make a final decision on a complaint and a reply will be issued to the complainant vide SCJC.

For Pursuable Complaints against judicial conduct of judges of the Court of Final Appeal and the Court Leaders (i.e. complaints directly related to their own conduct), the review procedure of the investigation reports by the Advisory Committee as stated above will be followed.

Other Pursuable Complaints

Upon completion of investigation by relevant Court Leaders and review by at least one High Court judge, on the direction of the Court Leaders, SCJC will issue a reply to the complainant. The disposal of these complaints will be reported to the Advisory Committee in a summary manner. Where justified, the Chief Justice may direct to re-open or review the investigation of the case on the advice of the Advisory Committee.

Flowchart for the Handling of Pursuable Complaints*

For serious or complex Pursuable Complaints or those drawing wide public attention, where appropriate and on the advice of the Advisory Committee, the Judiciary may post the investigation outcome of a complaint on its website (click this link) for public scrutiny. Where there are a large number of complaints of the same or similar content (falling within the scope of Pursuable Complaints) and the Judiciary has already posted the gist of and the response to the complaints on the above website, SCJC will not reply to each of these complaints individually.