The Chief Judge of the County Court, Peter Kidd, confirmed he had recently been asked by the Criminal Bar Association to consider a bullying complaint lodged against one of his judges. While precise details of the bullying complaint raised with Chief Judge Kidd are not known, it is believed to have come from a female barrister concerned about Judge Mark Dean's treatment of her during the course of a trial. Chief Judge Kidd confirmed a recent meeting with a representative of the Criminal Bar Association about the matter. But he said that "after careful consideration" the behaviour complained of did not amount to bullying. County Court judge Mark Dean, pictured while working as a lawyer in 2009. Credit:Justin McManus Judge Dean declined to comment. His at times robust courtroom manner has been criticised by Victoria’s Court of Appeal Justices on two previous occasions, including when he told a male barrister: “You are stupid”.

The raising of bullying concerns about a judge is unusual given most barristers accept that their workplace is unique because of its adversarial nature. A fear of jeopardising their clients' interests and their own career prospects are other reasons barristers rarely raise bullying complaints. Loading The Judicial Commission of Victoria, which began operations last July, said it had received 217 complaints about judicial officers and VCAT members. Before the establishment of the commission, complaints were handled by the head of each court.. Commission director Richard Besley said of the 217 complaints, 151 had been closed and 66 remained open. The Age understands the vast majority of complaints come from members of the public or self-represented litigants. Most of the complaints are dismissed. One complaint has been referred to the head of a court and a referral received from the Attorney General and the head of a court about a magistrate has been sent to an investigatory panel.

Several leading Melbourne barristers who spoke privately to The Age said Victoria had many excellent judicial officers. But there was a small number whose conduct occasionally went beyond what was acceptable and would likely meet the definition of bullying in other workplaces. The president of the Victorian Bar, Matt Collins QC, said judicial bullying was an issue affecting his members. He said the Victorian Bar was about to undertake the biggest ever health and wellbeing survey of its members, with a particular emphasis on bullying. Matt Collins, QC: bullying by judges breaches community standards. “Bullying by barristers can lead to disciplinary consequences, including suspension or loss of the right to practice. While it is important to recognise the pressures that our judges and magistrates are under, and the unusual environment of the courtroom in an adversarial system of justice, bullying by judicial officers breaches community standards and expectations and is unacceptable,” Dr Collins said. Dr Collins said the Bar provided support services for its members who have been bullied, including a counselling service and the lodging of formal or informal complaints.

Chief Judge Kidd said “while the court system is a robust work environment and adversarial in nature, like any workplace there is no place for bullying or harassment or other forms of inappropriate behaviour”. He said he had in recent years re-iterated the need for the County Court to be a safe workplace for everyone, “including to judges”. Chief Judge Peter Kidd with then Chief Justice of Victoria Marilyn Warren in 2015. Retired High Court justice Dyson Heydon raised the issue of judicial bullying in a 16-page critique of the Victorian Court of Appeal's decision to call three federal government ministers to explain their public criticism of Victorian judges for being "soft" on terrorism cases. "There are many admirable Australian judges ... but ... some judges lack the capacity to have merited appointment. A few are unjustifiably rude. A few are bullies. Some are appallingly slow, through inefficiency or laziness or indecisiveness. Some are insensitive. Some are ignorant. Some are undignified ... As a result, some judicial work is poor," Justice Heydon wrote.

Judge Dean was rebuked by Victoria's Court of Appeal in 2015 for intervening repeatedly during a prosecutor’s final address to the jury in a manner the Court of Appeal Justices' found “ill-timed, excessive, and, in some instances, expressed in intemperate terms”. In another Court of Appeal finding the following year, Judge Dean was criticised for his personal attacks on a defence barrister who he called “stupid”. In the same case, Judge Dean raised eyebrows by describing a defendant and his co-accused as “pathetic drug addicts”. Transcripts from the 2015 trial show just how heated things got. “[Defence counsel], you are unbelievable. Unbelievable. I will use my description that I used yesterday. You are stupid. I ruled ... “I cannot believe what has happened in this trial, some of the decisions that have been made by the defence. It is beyond me. Absolutely beyond me. In 35 years as a criminal lawyer, 10 years as a silk, I have never seen such incompetence by introducing evidence in a trial which is evidence of the accused man’s guilt. And I, for the life of me, have no idea what his defence is.”

The Court of Appeal decision described Judge Dean’s behaviour as “needlessly argumentative and rude”. "No matter what view a judge has of the manner in which counsel is running the case, to insult and demean counsel, even in the absence of the jury, is not only likely to offend and embarrass counsel but also to risk impeding counsel in conducting the trial and thus risk giving rise to a miscarriage of justice," the Court of Appeal judges said in their finding.