Complaints against Judges and Judicial Officers


For 2022, a total of 8 720 complaints were disposed of, including 8 625 pursuable complaints against judicial conduct and 95 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, 8 595 were related to mass complaints concerning four social event court cases. There was no justified or partially justified pursuable complaint in 2022.

Complaints related to judicial conduct are broadly classified according to their nature. Among pursuable complaints against judicial conduct, 73 cases (involving 62 mass complaints concerning one social event court case) were related to attitude and behavior in court, 8 542 cases (involving 8 533 mass complaints concerning three social event court cases) were related to the handling of the actual proceedings in court and 10 cases were of a mixed nature.

Information regarding the complaints disposed of is summarised below.

Number of Complaints Disposed of 12022
Total
a)Pursuable complaints against judicial conduct8 625
  • pursuable complaints comprising a large number of similar complaints and drawing wide public attention
8 5952
  • other pursuable complaints against judicial conduct
303
b)Non-pursuable complaints
(judicial/statutory decisions or frivolous/vexatious complaints)		954
Total8 7205

1.Under the enhanced mechanism which has come into operation commencing 16 August 2021, the investigation findings of all pursuable complaints against judicial conduct are to be reviewed either by the Advisory Committee on Complaints against Judicial Conduct ("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 against judicial conduct) 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.
2.These 8 595 complaints were related to mass complaints relating to four court cases. These complaints have been reviewed by the Advisory Committee.
3.These pursuable complaints have been or will be regularly and summarily reported to the Advisory Committee.
4.These non-pursuable complaints have been or will 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 provided with the mandatory information (correspondence address and name).