LEGAL NUGGETS (40): Unethical Address of Judicial Officer.By Adedotun Habeeb Adetunji LL.M (M.IoD), FCAI.

UNETHICAL ADDRESS OF JUDICIAL OFFICERS

"I noted earlier in the judgment that learned Counsel for the Appellant referred to the learned Justice of the Court below who wrote the leading judgment in the third person pronoun.

This is unacceptable. It violates the ethics of the noble profession. It is contemptuous.

On no account should a judicial officer be addressed or referred to by pronouns. To deter further occurrence of this lapse and those who may imagine they can look down on/or talk down on the Bench in this country, I hereby order learned counsel for the Appellant, Emmanuel O. Achukwu, Esq. to tender an unreserved apology, within 30 days from today, to the Honourable Justices below through the Hon. President of the Court of Appeal and copy the Chief Registrar of this Court."

EGHAREVBA V. THE STATE (2016) 258 LRCN PAGE 187 AT 209, PARA. K-Z. (Supreme Court).