Complaint about District Judge John Hugman (19/12/18)

The following is a complaint I sent to the Judicial Conduct and Investigations Office on the 19th December 2018. I've removed a few personal details.

They wrote back to me straight away with a standard letter, despite the fact that I had asked them specifically not just to send me a standard letter. An absolutely useless organisation.


Re: Complaint about District Judge Hugman from Wandsworth County Court

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wish to make a complaint about District Judge Hugman, who is based at Wandsworth County Court (I don’t know the first name of this judge).

The date that this complaint is for is the 17th December 2018. I believe that my claim number is ***.


I feel that this judge has been rude to me by lying in an order. Yes, I know that it’s in an order, and I want to make clear that I am not complaining about the order itself. I am complaining about this judge lying. If this judge had engaged in racist language in an order I imagine you would still investigate.

If you would investigate had a judge used racist language in an order (and perhaps you wouldn’t, I don’t know for sure), then you should be willing to investigate when a judge lies in an order.

If you are not willing to investigate when a judge allegedly lies in an order then please write to me to tell me that specifically. Then I can contact my MP to tell them. Please do not just send me a standard letter as a response.


I quote part of what was said:

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In this claim the claimant says he is making the claim “in case a different judge takes a different view.” That is not a cause of action and this claim therefore is an abuse of process, the issue already having been determined at a hearing.
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What I actually said was the following:

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Please note: back in January I submitted an application notice which was returned to me by the court with a handwritten note from District Judge Parker - please see attached copy. I then submitted a claim form. However, today in a court hearing, I was told quite clearly that I needed to have submitted an application notice. With this in mind, I am today submitting both an application notice and a claim form. The claim form is merely there in case a different judge takes a different view as to which form I needed to use. If an application notice is indeed the correct form to use then please just ignore the claim form. (I refuse to lose any more time due to submitting a form with the wrong two words at the top.)
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[added emphasis]

For this judge to say that I was making this new claim just in case a different judge took a different view is simply deceitful – it’s a lie. The comment was clearly just about providing an additional form, and even doing that was to try and be helpful, what with different judges in the same court having said different things on which form I needed to use.


Also, this judge said the following:

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The issue in this case, in law, identical to the issue in claim *** and brought by the same claimant against the same defendant. That claim was disposed of at a hearing on 7th September 2018. No appeal was made against the decision to strike out that claim and dismiss the application dated 15th May 2018.
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I didn’t appeal that decision as there was no point. I was told, by the judge, that I had used the wrong form for the wrong reason. Therefore, I brought a new case, this time using the correct form and for the right reason. Therefore, the issue in this case, in law, is absolutely NOT identical to the issue in claim ***.

Again, I am not complaining about the order here. Nor am I saying that the judge made an error of law or procedure. I am complaining about the fact that the judge lied.


The judge ordered that “the claim is struck out as an abuse of process and accordingly wholly without merit.”

This is just insulting, as where the judge said before that “this claim therefore is an abuse of process” was based on a blatant lie. The judge is saying that it is “accordingly wholly without merit”, based on the idea that it is an abuse of process, which is based on a blatant lie. This is bloody insulting and offensive to me.


Finally, and this is a minor point, the judge said that the “principle in the Norwich Pharmacal case is [not] found in CPR 31.18”. Nowhere did I claim it was.


This order contains lies and straw man arguments. The language used is therefore rude, insulting and offensive. If the order had contained racist language I don’t believe you would have found it acceptable. You shouldn’t find it acceptable for a judge to engage in deceitful behaviour either.

Yours sincerely,





John Smith


PS. Perhaps if you are not willing to investigate then you could at least tell me what I'm supposed to do about a judge who blatantly lies in an order.

The judge says that my claim is "struck out as an abuse of process and accordingly wholly without merit". As the judge's supposed logic is based purely on lies, their order is nothing more than abuse and accordingly wholly without merit.

I also suggest to you that a judge who lies in an official order has a position as a judge that is wholly without merit, too.