Top Sydney judge launches explosive legal action

A senior judge of the NSW Local Court has filed explosive proceedings in the state’s top court, claiming the judicial watchdog unfairly made findings against her after she complained about the chief judge.

Local Court Deputy Chief Judge Sharon Freund is seeking to overturn two decisions of the judicial watchdog in the Court of Appeal, according to a court document filed by her lawyer.

The document says Freund lodged a complaint in May this year against Chief Judge Michael Allen with the Judicial Commission of NSW, alleging he had “engaged in bullying conduct” towards her.

However, the commission determined in June that Freund’s complaint was not substantiated and dismissed it summarily, according to the document.

It also made adverse findings about Freund, and the judicial commission minutes recorded that “a number of the members of the commission were of the view that the complaint had not been brought in good faith”, the court filing says.

Those members considered Freund’s complaint was “an attempt to deflect” an inquiry by the chief judge into “what appeared to be irregular conduct and partiality”, the document says.

Freund’s lawyer Karen Espiner says in the court filing that the chief judge wrote to NSW Attorney-General Michael Daley on June 25.

Daley subsequently referred the findings about Freund back to the commission, the document says, and the watchdog referred that matter in August to a conduct division of the commission, which is a panel that investigates complaints.

Freund is seeking a declaration that the commission’s determination in June that her complaint about Allen was not substantiated was made outside its powers and has no legal effect.

She is also asking the Court of Appeal to quash the commission’s decision to refer the matters raised by the attorney-general to the conduct division.

Freund wants both decisions remitted to the judicial commission “to be dealt with according to law”.

Her lawyer says the original decision by the judicial commission to dismiss her complaint about the chief judge made “findings and opinions adverse to her knowledge, credit and conduct”, and “on critical issues concerning her own conduct and good faith”.

Freund was “not afforded a fair opportunity to address the new adverse information supplied in the chief judge’s response” to her complaint, her lawyer says.

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