As we reported in our April piece, Wigging Out, from 1 May all Judges in the Victorian Supreme Court ceased wearing wigs, but barristers were still reportedly permitted to wear wigs.

Vine has now reported that a Supreme Court Judge has taken objection to barristers appearing wigged when he himself was bereft of a wig, leading to the following reported exchange:

HIS HONOUR:  Mr Mighell, the Chief Justice … has directed that judges of this court are not to wig unless the circumstances are exceptional.  You are not showing, and neither are your colleagues, showing the respect that I expect of the Chief Justice from you and I want to record my profound disappointment that one, two, three, four, five members of this Bar table have wigs on, though I applaud the strength of character of your junior who does not.

MR MIGHELL:  Your Honour, we – I think I speak on behalf of all of the members of the Bar table – we mean Your Honour no disrespect in wearing wigs and we will remove our wigs.

HIS HONOUR:  Well I want to make it clear to you that it’s not a question of respect for me, though I do feel disrespected.  Whether you intend that disrespect or not, and I accept the fact that you do not intend it and that you are wearing wigs by reason of principle, but I experience disrespect.  But the more important question is how this treats the Chief Justice, not only of this court, but this State.

MR MIGHELL:  Yes, Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  She is the constitutional chief of the judicial system of Victoria and has directed that judges not wear wigs, and you five stand there wearing wigs, it’s untenable.  Now the course I will adopt in this case, and the course I will adopt in every case where this happens, is to ask for an explanation.  I won’t ask that of you, Mr Mighell, because you’ve already indicated that the wigs will be taken off at my request, and I so request.  I’ll give you time to do that in a moment.  They will need to be put away as well; I don’t want them to be seen by the jury at all.

MR MIGHELL:  We understand that, Your Honour.

HIS HONOUR:  But I make it absolutely clear that if this happens again and there is resistance to a request then I will hear counsel as to why it is that I ought not to direct as a matter of law that the wigs be taken off and I will so rule.

His Honour adjourned proceedings and left the bench to permit the barristers in question to remove their wigs, whereupon proceedings continued.

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