Jeeves and Jeeves

The parties in this matter were Mr and Mrs Jeeves, and the dispute concerned an application for the Honourable Justice Cronin to stand aside from hearing the case. The application was made to the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The sole legal issue before the Court was whether there were grounds for Justice Cronin to recuse himself from presiding over the proceedings.

Justice Cronin dismissed the oral application, finding no basis to stand aside. The Court applied the well-established legal principles concerning apprehended bias, which require a judge to recuse themselves if a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts, would apprehend that the judge might not bring an impartial mind to the resolution of the question the judge is to decide. In this instance, the Court found that no such apprehension of bias could reasonably be formed.

The oral application that the judge stand aside was dismissed.