A Nottinghamshire Magistrate has been disciplined for speaking to colleagues listed to deal with a relative's case.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) issued a disciplinary statement in relation to the conduct of Stevan Marvin JP yesterday.
Mr Marvin attended a court he normally sits in support of a relative charged with a criminal offence.
He also went behind the scenes to speak to the bench listed to hear his relative's case and attempted to speak to a District Judge who the case was being transferred to.
Mr Marvin denied that he had tried to influence the case but accepted that he should not have spoken to the Magistrates listed to hear it.
He was issued with a formal warning about his conduct.
This is quite a worrying lack of judgement on the part of the colleague concerned.
Even if his intentions were totally honorable and above board, they could certainly lead to the adverse public perception of bias in the court's dealings with his relative.
The court's handling of every case needs to be totally transparent and free from the merest whiff of external influence.
I am struggling to understand how he could think for one moment that such conduct was acceptable.
The correct course of conduct would have been to let his Bench Chairman and the relevant Senior Legal Manager know about his relative's case and steer well clear of it himself.
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