A Court of Appeal says a judge acted improperly when he heard a legal appeal from his hospital bed using a video link while recovering from surgery. The court rules that Richard Clayton KC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge, was wrong to conduct the hearing in that way.
The case concerned an appeal by an optician against a finding of serious misconduct, heard the day after Clayton returned from hospital following an operation for a ruptured Achilles tendon. Sources report that the judge took part remotely from his bed rather than from a normal court setting.
The outlets describe the same core issue: the appropriateness of hearing a case from a patient’s bed via video during post-operative recovery. While the reports focus on the circumstances and timing of the surgery, they align on the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that the approach was not correct.
The Court of Appeal’s decision therefore addresses procedural fairness and the suitability of the judge’s participation under those conditions.
