A HIGH COURT judge has issued a written statement saying that she dismissed the unfair dismissal claim of solicitor Ammi Burke because her behaviour in court was “extraordinarily unusual and unprecedented” and there were repeated interruptions from her family.
In a written ruling today explaining her dismissal of Burke’s case, Justice Marguerite Bolger said that on 4 May Burke engaged in a “blatant abuse of the court process” that made it impossible to continue hearing her case.
Burke was making an application for the judge’s recusal as part of her unfair dismissal claim against her former employer Arthur Cox.
She claimed she had an unblemished record during her time at the law firm until she was dismissed without notice in 2019.
Arthur Cox denied she was unfairly dismissed, saying she received three months’ pay in lieu of notice and a €70,000 ex gratia payment.
The judge stated:
“Throughout the hearing the court had to rise due to the applicant speaking loudly over me and counsel, in spite of my frequent requests to her not to do so.”
“There was a pattern of refusing to accept the court’s decisions throughout the hearing.”
Burke allegedly continued to seek the judge’s recusal even after the application for recusal had been adjourned.
She “did not seem to understand and/or accept the need to abide by decisions of the court and to move on with the hearing,” the judge said.
The judge stated that she asked Burke to “ensure that members of her family did not speak on her behalf”.
It was also stated that Burke “made baseless claims” against the judge and alleged that she had been “sharing in laughter” with Arthur Cox’s representatives.
It was impossible for Arthur Cox’s counsel to make submissions to the court because Burke was “continuing her objections, loudly repeating the same points she had made previously and on which I had already made a decision,” the judge added.
“I repeatedly asked her to stop speaking out of turn so that counsel for the respondent could resume her submissions but the applicant continued to shout her objections whilst pounding the lectern, at the same time that counsel for the respondent was trying to be heard.”
“The hearing was descending into chaos due to the applicant’s extraordinary behaviour.”
A break was called in proceedings and once the hearing resumed Burke continued “shouting her same objections over and over from a script”.
“I told the applicant that her conduct was appalling and that I was horrified that anyone, in particular a qualified solicitor, would conduct themselves in that manner before the court.”
The judge then warned Burke that the case would be dismissed if she continued her behaviour, but she was “determined to continue shouting her scripted objections”, the judge stated.
“Her conduct was devoid of any attempts at persuasion and appeared to be designed solely to collapse the hearing before the court had heard the remainder of the respondent’s submissions, any of the notice party’s submissions or the applicant’s reply.”
The judge added that she considered “alternative steps of removing the applicant from court” but didn’t believe these would work and heard the application for the case to be dismissed.
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