Courts & Judges | 18 Mar 2026
Adverse credibility findings at the liability stage of a bifurcated civil penalty hearing do not, without more, give rise to apprehended bias at the penalty stage
The High Court unanimously held that a judge who makes strongly adverse credibility findings at the liability stage of a bifurcated civil penalty proceeding is not thereby disqualified from hearing the penalty stage. The perceived tension between orthodox recusal principles and the standard practice of bifurcation is misplaced: there can be no reasonable apprehension of bias from an apprehension that a judge might do exactly what the judge is permitted to do.