Judges Under the Hammer

Data is the new word for information. But Information Journalist implies every other journalist is just a churnalist. Which is most definitely not the case. If data is anything in a database then I’m looking beyond that. For me data is any piece of information that can be turned to journalistic use. So rather than confine my scraping to CSVs and data releases, I can take anything from the web I think will be useful for the public to know.

Here’s something that is in the public domain but not the public sphere: Statements from the Office for Judicial Complaints where judges are reprimanded or struck off.  The OJC deals with complaints about the personal conduct of judges. Examples of possible personal misconduct might be use of insulting, racist or sexist language in court, or inappropriate behaviour outside the court such as a judge using their judicial title for personal advantage or preferential treatment. So they can be reprimanded and struck off for personal misconduct by the OJC but the OJC does not have the power to investigate or call into question any of their previous judgements.

So I’ve put all the statements with a link to the PDF documents detailing their case with the OJC on twitter. Any new statements should be picked up by my scraper (which will run daily) and then be tweeted out. If anyone who has dealt with a tweeted judge has something to add please reply to the tweet or use the hashtag #OJC.