Judge Wilson Chan faces 3rd reprimand over alleged judicial plagiarism

High Court judge Wilson Chan has been accused of judicial plagiarism for the third time.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung has issued another serious reprimand to Chan.

High Court Judge Wilson Chan's latest allegation of "impermissible judicial copying" involves a legal dispute between Koo Ming-kown, founder of Nam Tai Electronics and his former brother-in-law over the sale of shares.

The Court of Appeal judges found that nearly 95 percent of Justice Wilson Chan's judgment were copied from the defendant's legal submissions.

The appellate court judges ruled in favour of the plaintiffs' appeal, overturning Wilson Chan's ruling.

The case was ordered to be reheard by a different judge.

Earlier, Justice Wilson Chan was also found to be embroiled in two cases of alleged judicial copying and was reprimanded by the chief justice.

In response to media inquiries, the Judiciary says it is acceptable and relatively common in common law jurisdictions for judges to incorporate parties' submissions into their judgments.

But excessive reliance on those submissions may create the impression that a judge failed to exercise independent reasoning in determining the facts and legal issues and therefore, extensive judicial copying should be avoided.

It adds that Justice Chan's work had been adjusted last year so he mainly handles criminal cases that do not require written judgments.

Chief Justice Andrew Cheung and the Chief Judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon will issue "serious reprimand" to Chan again over the matter and request him to "undertake targeted training."

Senior Counsel Ronny Tong says the repeated incidents have damaged public perception towards the judiciary but notes that under the Basic Law, a judge may only be removed if the person is proven to be unable to discharge judicial duties or has engaged in serious misconduct.

Tong says the threshold, however, is exceptionally high.

While there is no precedent, Tong says the Chief Justice could also advise the relevant judge to resign.