Judge with no time for bullies not for turning on contempt

Judge Michael Pattwell was not for turning and didn't harbour the slightest regret at his decision at Kanturk District Court last Wednesday. Then he had Marguerite Fennell, a Cork solicitor, removed from the court by gardai for contempt and later fined £2.

The judge, who is known for very firm views on many aspects of the law, is a stickler for the dignity of the courts over which he presides and does not brook any behaviour which he believes might impinge on that dignity.

Last Wednesday he took the view that in the presentation of her case during a family law matter, Ms Fennell crossed a line which she should not have crossed. He asked her to desist in her argument but she refused and, as he put it during a lengthy interview yesterday, no other course was left open to him but to take the action he did.

The judge has had, to say the least, an interesting career. He has sat on the bench for 10 years, but his first encounter with the law was decades ago when he became a clerk at the Cork District Court. Later he studied law and practised as a solicitor in Clonakilty, where he was born and reared, for more than 10 years.

He worked in Dublin County Council as a deputy law agent and subsequently at Cork County Council as its senior executive solicitor. In 1990 he was appointed to the bench as a district judge and served in various locations, including Chancery Street in Dublin. He is no longer what is termed a moveable judge and is now in charge of several courts in District No 20, including Kanturk, Mitchelstown, Cobh, Midleton and Fermoy.

He feels passionately about family law matters and is concerned that litigants in such cases are being badly served by the State. He abhors bullies, especially men who beat women, and he regards anyone who cheats the Revenue or fails to pay his/her motor tax as acting in a socially unacceptable manner.

Accordingly, when people come before him on these issues, he uses the letter of the law as he sees fit and in the particular circumstances that are reported to him. This is the way it should be, Judge Pattwell argues, and says he does not agree with mandatory sentencing because judges should have the discretion to deal with situations as they arise on the day.

Is he a tough judge? "I accept that description if that's what people say about me, though tough isn't a word I would use easily. I set out to be fair and I hope I have achieved that. The penalties are set out by statute and fixed by the legislature. I have a discretion in most cases and I try to use it in a way that fits the situation.

"From reading the newspapers, it would appear that my penalties have been higher than those imposed by some of my colleagues, but I'm not responsible for my colleagues. I think a judge needs to have the courage to do what is right."

Asked if he would consider himself to be compassionate, Judge Pattwell said he hoped this was the case, but it really wasn't for him to make such observations. But he added that he could "cry for hard cases" and that often after a day's work in the court he would be much more concerned about whether he had granted the correct access between parent and child in a family law matter than he would ever be over the Marguerite Fennell issue.

When he was practising as a solicitor, he continued, his aim was to retire at 55, but he loved life on the bench so much that he hoped to continue working until he reached the retirement age of 70. He said it was no secret that a District Court judge's annual salary was £58,000 and in his view this was not enough. Judges in his position should more properly be paid between £70,000 and £80,000 a year, he said.

Returning to his differences with the Southern Law Association, which has sided with Ms Fennell and is now boycotting his court, Judge Pattwell said he had sent three people to prison for contempt of court before last Christmas.

It was noteworthy, he added, that no solicitors lined up to say that any of the three people jailed had been treated badly and that no statements were issued by the legal profession on behalf of the people who were removed from his court.

"Yet, when one of their own is involved, they take what I regard as an unconstitutional action."

The judge said he did not enjoy publicity, although those who know him on his circuit in north and east Cork know he doesn't shirk it either. While he thinks publicity for a judge is inappropriate, he speaks his mind in an uncompromising manner, knowing that the more he does so, the more publicity he is going to generate. That seems to be one contradiction in his make-up.

Another is that, while he is meticulous about receiving fair play in newspapers, he does not allow reporters attending his courts access to legal documents which he has signed. This means they have to go to sometimes extraordinary lengths to verify the names and addresses of people who have appeared before him.

The current impasse between him and the Southern Law Association will, he believes, only add grist to the mill of certain sections of the media and the public, who will enjoy what he thinks is an unseemly row.

Emphasising again that family law is the area of court work he most enjoys, he is adamant that facilities must be put in place to make such sensitive court cases more bearable for all sides involved.

He asks why there are insufficient waiting rooms away from the gaze of the public when the litigants in family law matters are awaiting their turn in court. And why the court schedule is so busy that sometimes highly sensitive issues have to be fitted in to the day's business as best they can.

It simply is not good enough, he says, and neither is it good enough that court buildings themselves are run down and ramshackle. He has been active in consultations with the chief executive of the Courts Services Board on this question and has already been the catalyst for an improvement in a number of court buildings in his region.

Judge Pattwell writes poetry, has had some of his poems published and reads a lot. He is particularly fond of the author Cormac McCarthy. He likes walking and socialising with friends but he doesn't drink.

"That doesn't mean I'm against drink. I often go to pubs with my friends." He likes theatre as well and is eclectic about his taste in music: "My CDs include everything from Beethoven to Dolly Parton".

He is also a great lover of the Irish language and attends night classes at UCC once a week. His mother was a dressmaker all his life and his father was a soldier during the Emergency. He does not discuss his politics except to say that he was active during the divorce referendum campaigns and was against divorce.

Since then he has separated from his wife and is now living with a new partner. He has changed his mind on the divorce question and is now pro-divorce. There is nothing wrong, he says, in somebody changing his views.

He was also active on the anti-abortion side during that debate and he still feels strongly that abortion is wrong. He is the father of eight children, three of them adopted, ranging in age from 31 to 13 1/2.

One of his ambitions is to take an in-depth course in psychology, which he thinks would make him a better family law judge. "People are always learning, judges are no different."

As he prepared to fly out for a week's holiday in Austria, Judge Pattwell said the row he was leaving behind in Cork wouldn't worry him in the slightest. A huge man standing over 6 ft tall, he said he was looking forward to joining a group of friends on a skiing holiday.

"I won't be skiing, but I've told them I'll carry their bags when they break their legs."