Complaints against Judges and Judicial Officers


For 2021, a total of 2 205 complaints were disposed of, including 1 994 pursuable complaints against judicial conduct and 204 non-pursuable complaints that were mainly related to judicial decisions. In accordance with the principle of judicial independence, complaints against judicial decisions cannot and will not be dealt with under the complaint handling mechanism. Any dissatisfaction with judicial decisions can only be dealt with by way of appeal or review through existing legal procedures. Among these complaints, 1 943 were related to mass complaints concerning two social event court cases. There was no justified or partially justified pursuable complaint in 2021.

Complaints related to judicial conduct are broadly classified according to their nature. Among pursuable complaints against judicial conduct, 23 cases were related to attitude and behavior in court, 1 961 cases (involving 1 943 mass complaints concerning two social event court cases) were related to the handling of the actual proceedings in court, 1 case was related to conduct not directly related to court work and 9 cases were of a mixed nature.

Information regarding the complaints disposed of is summarised below.

Number of Complaints Disposed of2021
Total
a)Pursuable complaints against judicial conduct1 994
  • pursuable complaints comprising a large number of similar complaints and drawing wide public attention
1 9431
  • other pursuable complaints against judicial conduct
512
b)Non-pursuable complaints
(judicial/statutory decisions or frivolous/vexatious complaints) 		2043
c)Review cases on Court Leaders’ findings74
Total2 2055

1.These 1 943 complaints were related to mass complaints relating to two court cases. The complaints which were dealt with after commencement of the enhanced mechanism have been reviewed by the Advisory Committee.
2.Those pursuable complaints that were or are dealt with after commencement of the enhanced mechanism have been or will be regularly and summarily reported to the Advisory Committee.
3.Non-pursuable complaints that were or are dealt with after commencement of the enhanced mechanism have been or will be regularly and summarily reported to the Advisory Committee.
4.Prior to commencement of the enhanced mechanism, complaints regarding dissatisfaction with Court Leaders’ findings of the original complaints were reviewed by the Chief Justice. As from 16 August 2021, under the new arrangement of the enhanced mechanism, the investigation findings of all pursuable complaints are to be reviewed either by the Advisory Committee (for complaints which are serious/complex/drawing wide public attention or directly related to judicial conduct of specific judges) or by High Court judges (for other pursuable complaints) before disposal. In addition, the disposal of other pursuable complaints and non-pursuable complaints is to be regularly and summarily reported to the Advisory Committee.
5.For those identical or similar complaints against a judge / judicial officer involving more than one court case, the number of complaints will only be reported in the above table upon full disposal of complaints of all court cases involved. The number of complaints disposed of only includes complaints with the provision of the mandatory information (correspondence addresses and names).