THE NAME GAME
What you and the usher call the basement judge in pre- and post-hearing banter is not covered in the recent message from on high about modes of address in courts and tribunals. The wokeless direction is to call them ‘Judge’ and no longer ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’, thereby ‘reflecting the important judicial role and maintaining the necessary degree of respect’. This courtesy is to be extended to masters, district judges, Upper Tribunal judges, judges of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, district judges (magistrates’ courts), First-tier Tribunal judges and employment judges—what would be called the ‘jewels in the crown’, unless it was the Lord Chancellor speaking on reviewing pay. Whether the same mode of address should be adopted upon encountering one of these jewels in Marks & Spencer over lunch is unclear. No attention, however, has been given to the bandwagon-climbers-on, to wit the traffic commissioners. We are now told that they are to be addressed as ‘Commissioner’ or ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’,
