Slightly from the archives – a report about the difficulties I faced when trying to obtain a High Court judgment in 2022.
Prompted by a recent post from Celia Kitzinger entitled ‘Contempt of court proceedings: Are they transparent?‘ – (Spoiler alert: they’re not) I recalled an exchange of e-mails I had with court staff coming up to three years ago…
The case involved an art dealer who had pledged a load of paintings as security for £2.3m of loans – but he hadn’t been asked to hand them over. When the loans defaulted it was discovered the artwork had been sold and the borrower had fled the country.
You can read about the case in my long-read “Great Green Art Fraud – How FundingSecure lenders were scammed“.
One of the strands of litigation that took place to recover the monies was an application before the High Court to have the borrower, Matthew Robert Green, 57, held in contempt of court. Potentially two years in prison or an unlimited fine would result.
The hearing was held on February 13th 2019 before Mr Justice (now Lord Justice) Arnold and Mr Green was duly found in contempt on four counts.
Three years roll past and in preparation for writing my article I sought to track down the judgment from the contempt hearing – the procedure rules in force at the time* required them to be published by the court.
CPR 81.8 (8) (in force at the time)
The court shall be responsible for ensuring that judgments in contempt proceedings are transcribed and published on the website of the judiciary of England and Wales.
You can read the whole e-mail exchange here if you so wish, but over a 6-week-period I was told variously:
- That the judgment didn’t exist (30th May)
- Again “there is no judgment as such on the file, although it looks like Judgment is in the form of an order.” (1st June)
- That the person I was speaking to “didn’t really know as this is not something I normally deal with.” (1st June)
- Then, that if I wanted a copy I’d have to pay for a transcript – likely several hundred pounds (6th July)
- Before finally, “After speaking to the Judge’s then clerk, I have been able to obtain a transcript of Arnold J’s judgment” (6th July)
A textbook example of the level of persistence that is required to achieve open justice, and the hours of work that have to spent for even simple requests.
*The procedure rules now states that publication is only required “where a sentence of imprisonment (immediate or suspended) is passed“.
Mouse in the Court 