No bias where advocate part-time judge

Lawal v Northern Spirit Ltd (CA TLR 7 November)

By a majority, the Court of Appeal held that there was no real possibility of bias where an advocate appearing for a party had previously sat as a part-time judge at the Employment Appeal Tribunal with one of the two lay members sitting with a judge hearing the appeal. It rejected the contention that a lay member who had sat as a colleague of the advocate when he sat as a part-time judge might be subconsciously influenced by that previous professional relationship formed in the tribunal and by a sense of collegiate loyalty to him. Lay members normally served on tribunals for many years and would have experience of some of those who appeared before them (and they were likely to be those who appeared often in that forum), occasionally sitting as judges. They would rightly perceive them as advocates who occasionally sat as judges, not as judges who occasionally stood down to act as advocates.