A prior professional relationship between a judge (as barrister) and a party in unrelated litigation more than a decade earlier does not, without more, give rise to apprehended bias. An applicant for disqualification must identify the precise matter said to give rise to bias, the logical connection to apprehended deviation from the merits, and the reasonableness of the apprehension from the perspective of a fair-minded lay observer. The court that admitted a practitioner has primary jurisdiction over strike-off applications concerning that practitioner.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 1 later case that cites this judgment.
1 of the 1 citing case carries a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.