A councilor at one of the country’s administrative courts expressed in a judgment that he considered that a CSN text was misrepresented by the “hitpåword” hen. Now he is criticized by the Ombudsman, who believes that it is against the principle of objectivity.
“It is not possible to assess the reasons for the judgment in any other way than that they are contrary to the principle of objectivity that follows from ch. 1. § 9 RF”, writes the lawyer in a referral response to JO, reports Dagens Juridik.
The Ombudsman for Justice received an anonymous report directed at the councilor in question, where attention was drawn to the fact that, on several occasions according to the complainant, he had used inappropriate writings in three specific judgments – something that JO chose to review.
In one of the judgments, the councilor writes:
“As a side note, however, it must be said that CSN’s text is unnecessarily spoiled by the “hitte-påord” hen; in the first case with reference to BB (see also the penultimate digit in the social security number), which of course in correct Swedish should be expressed he and in the second case with reference to the borrower, which of course should be equally correctly expressed/written it”.
Gets support from the referee’s boss
Against the background of the alderman’s, and also the judge’s, way of expressing himself in the judgments, JO obtained opinions from the lawman and a chief alderman at the administrative court.
In his opinion, the lawyer stated that it is not possible to assess the reasons for the judgment in any other way than that they are contrary to the principle of objectivity, that is, the legal principle which means that everyone in Sweden must be treated equally before the law.
However, the lawyer has emphasized that the councilor promised that he will not express himself in a similar way again.
Have “significant freedom”
Despite the Justice Ombudsman’s criticism of the councillor, JO underlines in his decision that judges have “considerable freedom” when it comes to how judgments are to be written, writes Dagens Juridik.
At the same time, it is emphasized that a judge must express himself correctly, that they must stick to the factual issues to be assessed and that accuracy is important when formulating judgment reasons.