rules-of-court judge misconduct
Does this conduct amount to any actionable judicial bias?
<p>Bob takes Rob to the court which sets a date for the first hearing 12 January 2021.</p>
<p>Rob's lawyer from lawfirm X applies for adjournment of the hearing a few weeks later for reason Y.</p>
<p>Bob objects and articulates why reason Y does not stand. All this happens via email communication with the court's clerk.</p>
<p>Then, a judge, without any advance notice, considers the adjournment application alone in chambers and delivers decision out of the blue in which, although her Honour accepts Bob's reasoning re reason Y failing, nevertheless grants the adjournment application because...</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;the officers of X will be closed from December 23rd 2020 to 18th January 2021. The   defendant is entitled to legal representation.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When Bob questions how/when the court became aware of the particular dates for the X's Christmas break, the court clerk replies:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Judge ****** who granted the application for adjournment was already aware of when the defence counsel offices were closing etc from previous matters that she has dealt with.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is, the judge comes up with a whole new argument in Rob's favour which not only at no point was communicated on notice for Bob to address it, but also was something that the judge knew about Rob's lawyer outside of the proceeding.</p>
<p>Minor magnitude of the matter aside, does the judge's conduct amount to any <a href="https://www.enyolaw.com/posts/111/without-prejudice-judicial-bias-and-unfair-conduct" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bias</a> that could be actioned upon (e.g. recusal)?</p>
<p>(Any jurisdiction with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adversarial_system" rel="nofollow noreferrer">adversarial system</a>)</p>

<p>Judges generally have wide discretion on scheduling issues. If Rob's law firm X was indeed closed on the scheduled date that is reason enough to postpone, and that kind of postponement need not be argues if the Judge is satisfied. In any case what would Bob's lawyer say in response? It is a little surprising that this was not first mentioned by X, but mistakes happen. I don't thin k Bob can establish actionable bias based on this incident alone.</p>
