Kirby J speaks on Bullying Judges and Stressed System

Former High Court Judge, Justice Michael Kirby has been reported by the Age News paper as having said that “bullying judges breed a stressful legal system”.

The report of the Justice Kirby’s comments indicates that in Kirby’s view the rudeness of judges “trickles down to junior lawyers in a cycle of bullying and stress that is rife within the legal profession”. His honor went on to point out that: “Judges at every court level he had worked in, including the High Court often took their ‘internal stresses’ out on lawyers that appeared before them’.

Justice Kirby’s comments were made at the “National Wellness for Law forum” held at Melbourne University on Thursday (21 February 2013).

Justice Kirby’s view appears to be backed up in medical quarters. For example a recent article appearing in Psychology Today called “Stress in the Legal System - Using Law to Enhance Wellbeing” published on December 26, 2012 by Brian Bornstein, Ph.D. where in concluding his article he writes:

Stress is an unavoidable component of the legal system. The system poses a threat to participants’ wellbeing, whether they are there by choice or not. It is incumbent on those who set legal policy to do what they can to minimize that stress, and thereby to foster the wellbeing of the myriad individuals who play a part, whether they are there as “one-time players” (e.g., witnesses, jurors) or regular performers (e.g., judges, attorneys). To do otherwise would be, in a very real sense, unjust.

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