The Open Justice External Audit report 2024 researched and documented the OPEN JUSTICE issue in the Isle of Man, the relationship to other issues such as the EQUALITY OF ARMS issue, the HUMAN RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL issue with all available evidence material to the case disclosed and the ACCESS TO JUSTICE issue.

The report was shared with the Chief Registrar to highlight a fundamental breakdown in the rule of law in particular in public sector whistleblower cases.

The Chief Registrar refused to acknowledge the existence of the report, refused to respond to the recommendations and refused to remedy the highlighted serious issues.

The report highlighted:
(1)  a disproportionately high percentage of unpublished judgments contrary to the open justice legal principle and in contempt of human rights and the UK Supreme Court judgment Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd v Dring [2019] that reiterated the necessity of published court judgments and tribunal decisions
(2)  the judgments website includes “trick coding” to specifically stop searchable judgments in Google searches and that disadvantages a litigant in person against a legally represented other party
(3)  woefully inadequate judgments website search functionality and statistics contrary to the open justice legal principle
(4)  implied exclusive agreements with legal publishers to minimise published judgments to maximise profits and any profit share — the offline public register includes nearly 20,000 small claims procedure cases but the judgments website includes less than 20 published judgments — yet the courts and tribunals expect a litigant in person to reference the most relevant cases and that blatantly undermines the ACCESS TO JUSTICE, EQUALITY OF ARMS and FAIR TRIAL legal principles
(5)  a conflicted HM Attorney General Chambers implicated in the CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SYSTEMIC FAILURE issue aided and abetted by “team player” public sector employees closing ranks to protect themselves and HM Attorney General Chambers
(6)  the INIQUITOUS LEGAL OPINION issue, the UNDISCLOSED EVIDENCE issue and the indefensible FABRICATED LEGAL DEFENCE to evade any liability and any accountability issue
(7)  information available internally but not made available to external justice system users
(8)  the FEE REMISSION issue — a litigant in person is only deemed unable to afford a court fee above 253 pounds and 50 pence but somehow able to afford cumulative court fees that exceed the same total
(9)  a worrying lack of dissenting opinions in judgments that implies a GROUPTHINK issue

The Isle of Man Government EMPLOYEE INDEMNIFICATION fake legal expenses promise scandal and the outsourced CIVIL LEGAL AID FINANCIAL ELIGIBILITY TEST scandal amount to an unpublished public sector anti-whistleblower policy.

The lack of a “practical and effective” civil legal assistance scheme is contrary to the European Court of Human Rights Airey v Ireland [2019] judgment.  Ask yourself is it a coincidence that the pivotal judgment is excluded from the ECHR section on the Isle of Man judgments website:

1. Access to the courts is an essential aspect of the right to a fair hearing

2. The Irish government’s failure to provide legal aid or alternative measures to facilitate access to the courts breached Article 6(1).

3. The complexity of the legal process combined with the lack of legal aid, effectively denied the right to a fair hearing.

If you want to help stop injustice contact us by email via tynwaldpapers@gmail.com in the first instance.