A judge who sent a claimant to prison for discussing evidence during a housing possession trial acted in a ‘completely disproportionate’ way, the Court of Appeal has held.
Judge Melissa Clarke warned property developer Neil Jarvis not to discuss his evidence with anyone during an overnight break in his cross-examination. However, he did. On discovering this, Judge Clarke struck out his claim, and remanded him in custody overnight with a view to sentencing him for contempt of court in the morning.
The Court of Appeal, however, ordered that a new trial take place and criticised Jarvis’ imprisonment, in Hughes Jarvis v Searle & Anor [2019] EWCA Civ 1.
Delivering judgment, Lord Justice Leggatt said: ‘When… an incident occurs during a trial which gives the trial judge cause for concern that the integrity of a witness’s evidence might have been compromised, a measured approach is called for.’
He said the judge’s response could ‘serve as a case study on how not to deal with such a situation’.
