Judge refuses to recuse himself in a group litigation case
The defendant issued an application for the Managing Judge of
this Group Litigation case to recuse himself on the ground of
apparent bias. The test for apparent bias is that established in
the leading case of Porter v Magill [2002]: "the
fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts,
would conclude that there was a real possibility that the tribunal
was biased".
The defendant's main complaint was that the judge had, when
giving judgment on certain common issues, already formed a view on
matters which remained to be revisited at subsequent trials. Much
of the case turns on its particular facts, but some general
observations were made by the judge, including the following:
