I made a video last week about a High Court decision of Mr Justice Twomey in which he excoriated unqualified legal advisors, who he described as ‘malevolent’.
In the course of his decision, however, he made an interesting point about the lay litigant plaintiffs in the case, the Barringtons.
The Barringtons, as part of their application to have one High Court judge set aside the decision of another, said they were looking for ‘justice’ and ‘the right result’.
Twomey made the interesting point that there is no ‘right’ result in a legal case on any given day. There is only the decision of the judge or jury and this can vary on appeal and depending on what judge is hearing the case.
Here is an extract from Twomey’s decision:
A litigant is not entitled to the ‘right’ decision?
49. The reason the Barringtons have obtained justice, despite not getting what they believe was the ‘right’ or a ‘just’ result, is because, while superficially it may seem surprising to say it, litigants are not in fact entitled to the ‘right’ or a ‘just’ decision from a court. This is for the simple reason that there is no such thing as one ‘right’ or one ‘just’ decision. This is because different judges will reach different decisions on the very same facts. This point was put succinctly by the Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, Keegan L.C.J. when she stated that: “There’s a discipline to providing judgments […] colleagues might disagree with you, other courts might disagree with you. That doesn’t mean you are wrong, necessarily. It means that there are different views.”
Here is Twomey’s decision in this case, it is worth a read.