This article titled “Queensland chief justice Tim Carmody takes another two weeks off court duties” was written by Joshua Robertson, for theguardian.com on Thursday 11th June 2015 00.36 UTCQueensland chief justice Tim Carmody has extended his absence from court duties, which a fellow judge has revealed left her having to deal with a clutch of important cases while grieving her father’s death.
Carmody, whose future is in limbo after he offered his resignation to the state government then took a month’s sick leave citing a back condition, has taken another two weeks off.
Supreme court justice Roslyn Atkinson has spoken publicly of the pressure in recent weeks of having to deliver judgments in four urgent cases while the court was “short a judge”. Atkinson was still suffering from bronchitis when she was forced to cover Carmody in the court of appeal.
“In the same fortnight as all of this, my father died and I had both to deal with my grief and organise his funeral, while also being unwell with a chest infection,” Atkinson told a Women and leadership Australia function on 28 May.
“But we were short a judge and our fellow citizens were depending on quick and just resolutions to their problems. This is why we do what we do. It is the practical application of the rule of law for the people of Queensland.”
She said it was a “great privilege to serve as a judge, but with judicial office comes great responsibility”.
“Over the past fortnight, for example, I have dealt with cases as important to the litigants involved as a decision to prevent a man who unlawfully killed his mother inheriting under the will she made just a month before he killed her,” she said.
“A decision as to whether a settlement made in favour of two infants whose mother was killed in an horrific motor vehicle accident was sufficient to be in their best interests.
“A decision as to whether a woman whose husband disappeared while surfing off Bali, leaving a grieving and increasingly financially stricken wife and dependent children, could swear to his death so that his estate could be dealt with under the laws of succession.
“And an application to dissolve an adoption order over a man who was psychologically damaged by the order that had been made in favour of his stepfather, who brutally abused him in the days where such behaviour was hidden or not perhaps regarded so seriously.
“In relation to this last matter, I should say that I am unaware of any such decision previously having been made in Queensland.”
Carmody, 59, had been expected to return to work next Monday in the court of appeal. That court’s president Margaret McMurdo has refused to sit with him in any court after their falling out over the appeal of Daniel Morcombe’s murderer.
Carmody withdrew from the case before an application for apprehended bias could be heard against him; he was the only one of three judges not to prepare a draft judgment after five months. He took sick leave shortly after.
He is now due to return to hear cases for the Queensland civil administrative tribunal in mid-June.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and attorney general Yvette D’Ath made clear they were unaware until media reports that Carmody had extended his sick leave.
“The chief justice has indicated his intention to resign; I’ve read reports that he has extended his sick leave,” Palaszczuk said before leaving for a US trade mission.
“The attorney-general is having ongoing discussions with the chief justice. Those matters are confidential.”
Carmody originally chose not to sit in court because of the effect of medication but proposed continuing “official duties” including attending a wine evening and giving a speech at a Hamilton island legal conference.
Carmody, who offered his resignation in return for “just terms”, has more than three years to work as a judge before he qualifies for a pension of more than 0,000 a year.
But he is due to qualify for six months long service leave in September after working a total of seven years as a judge.
Guardian Australia revealed earlier this year that Carmody had struggled to match the work rate of his predecessor and subsequently removed himself from a court calendar that showed him to be the least active supreme court judge.
He then went several months without hearing a case.
Retiring judge Alan Wilson in March spoke of the “significant extra burden on the other judges” imposed by Carmody’s apparent preference for attending public functions over court work.
“The notion that there is scope for some kind of full-time public relations role for a head of jurisdiction, and little more, is surprising,” Wilson said.
“So is the idea that judge-work takes second place and must give way to these kinds of events – which other judges do almost every day, but outside court sitting hours.
“It does not seem a good use of resources.”
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