About us

We can look at complaints about how investigating bodies have handled complaints alleging misconduct by judicial office holders. We also look at the handling of complaints about the judicial appointments process.


We can help you if you are unhappy with the way your complaint about either a judicial office holder or the judicial appointments process was dealt with. We cannot help you with a court case, investigate a judicial office holder or say whether their actions amount to misconduct.

For more information about how to make a complaint about a judicial office holder, visit the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office website.

Who we are

We are a team of 9, including the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman, based in London.

Our responsibilities

Our responsibilities fall into 2 distinct categories.

For judicial conduct investigations process complaints, we are responsible for:

  • considering complaints about the judicial conduct investigations process
  • asking the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, a tribunal president, or magistrates’ advisory committee to re-investigate a complaint where appropriate
  • recommending changes to procedure in order to prevent the same issue from happening again
  • proposing that compensation be paid if we believe that a complainant has suffered because of maladministration

For judicial appointment complaints, we are responsible for:

We process personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice (PDF, 150 KB, 3 pages).

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