Oops—Judge Wasn't Sworn In, So Cases Must Be Retried
In an effort to ease a backlog of cases, an Australian court recently amped up its roster of magistrate judges, adding a part-time jurist. Unfortunately, no one remembered that George Wilkie had to be sworn in before he heard five cases in Southport Magistrates Court on Nov. 28.
That means that all of the cases will have to be retried, at considerable expense and inconvenience both to the justice system and the parties involved, because Wilkie’s decisions weren’t legally binding, explains an article published by the Gold Coast newspaper group. The plan was to do so tomorrow.
According to Bill Potts, a Southport lawyer, such a mistake is unprecedented in Queensland, Australia, and “I don’t think it will ever happen again, to be honest, because there will be a few red faces in the Justice Department,” he says.
Michael Sing, another longtime local lawyer, predicts a nightmare for those involved, as they once again line up witnesses and prepare to retry a case that may or may not come out the same way a second time. “The parties themselves might be well-advised to look at alternative dispute resolution instead of facing the prospect of re-litigating civil matters,” he notes.
