- BY CJ McKinney
Tribunal judge publicly criticises Home Office presenting officers
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A judge of the First-tier Tribunal has reportedly said that some Home Office presenting officers appearing before him are “worse than useless”.
Judge Nicholas Easterman, who became an immigration judge in 2003, told a Bar Council event last night that the tribunal “cannot manage in many cases without proper assistance and we rarely get it from the Home Office”, according to the journalist and barrister Catherine Baksi.
Ms Baksi writes on her Legal Hackette’s Brief blog that Judge Easterman sees some POs as “good and fair”, but others try to defend “impossible” and “unsustainable” Home Office decisions.
Judge Easterman also took aim at the complexity of immigration law – no arguments here – reportedly saying that
Immigration law is a total nightmare. I don’t suppose the judges know anymore about it than the appellants who come before them.
Nicholas Easterman was called in 1975 and practised in crime. His profile as a judicial mentor on the Bar Council’s website says that he became an immigration judge “knowing nothing of Immigration Law, on the understanding that there would be training, which there was”. He sits at Hatton Cross tribunal hearing centre.
Source: “Immigration judge bemoans ‘worse than useless’ Home Office officials”, Legal Hackette’s Brief, 8 November 2017
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