Professor Steve Molyneux has resigned after 16 years as a Magistrate from Telford Magistrates Court following a complaint made by an individual within the court system concerning his use of Twitter. Prof Molyneux had been twittering about cases he was involved in before going onto the bench and during breaks in the proceedings. Fellow twitterer and solicitor Brian Inkster casts an eye over the decision.  You can read more on Brian's use of twitter in the forthcoming edition of The Firm.

Prof Molyneux's resignation as a Magistrate perhaps demonstrates that sometimes care must be taken before you tweet. Prof Molyneux claims that nothing he tweeted about was not in the public domain and would not have been in the local press that evening in any event. However, with hindsight he agrees that he should perhaps have used the word "accused" rather than "robbers" when he tweeted before going into court that he was "just about to hear application from three robbers from Manchester
as to whether to remand or not". He had just prior to that tweeted that he had been "called into court today to deal with those arrested last night and held in custody. I guess they will be mostly drunks but you never know."

The short nature of a tweet (140 characters maximum) and the immediacy/informality of writing it could lead to tweets being
interpreted in different ways. The Judiciary should of course not be pre-judging a case before it starts although Prof Molyneux has pointed out that this was a bail application and not a trial. Furthermore it appears clear from his recent tweets and interview with 'Charon QC' that there was no intention to pre-judge and that the Saturday court in question does as a matter of fact deal mostly with those held overnight and accused of being drunk and disorderly.

I do not think the nature of the tweets involved were serious enough to warrant resignation. Prof Molyneux has tweeted that he "was not forced to resign but did so as a mater [sic] of integrity". There is no question of Prof Molyneux having been twittering in open court, he did so in his breaks. Had he been doing so he acknowledges that it would have been gross misconduct.

It will be sad if this incident discourages the use of technology in reporting on court cases. No doubt the court service will be looking at this and producing guidelines for the Judiciary to follow. Lawyers likewise might reflect on what they should or should not tweet about. I think, on that front, if they follow the Solicitors (Scotland) (Standards of Conduct) Practice Rules 2008 or in England the Solicitors Code of Conduct 2007, which they should be doing in any event, they will not go far wrong.

Brian