Neil Parpworth examines a case of unfairness in the magistrates’ court
- In Paling v Ipswich Magistrates Court and another [2021] EWHC 2739 (Admin), a 76-year-old man’s application for judicial review succeeded following a hearing in which the opposing side’s solicitor spoke so softly that the claimant could not hear what was being said.
In Kanda v Government of the Federation of Malaya [1962] AC 322, Lord Denning noted, among other things, that the ‘rule against bias’ and the ‘right to be heard’ amounted to the ‘essential characteristics of what is often called natural justice’. With regard to the latter, he further observed: ‘If the right to be heard is to be a real right which is worth anything, it must carry with it a right in the accused man to know the case which is made against him. He must know what evidence has been given and what statements have been made affecting him; and then he must be given a fair opportunity to correct or contradict them’ (at p337).
These remarks were subsequently cited with approval
