Lawyer Lyle Howe allowed to call Judge Elizabeth Buckle to testify

Halifax defence lawyer Lyle Howe has won permission to call a provincial court judge to testify at his Nova Scotia Barristers' Society disciplinary hearing, but won't be allowed to subpoena nearly a dozen other judges.

In a decision released Monday night, a three-member panel said Howe can subpoena Judge Elizabeth Buckle, who presides in Amherst. However, the panel said Howe would not be able to question her about her work as a judge.

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The society retained Buckle, before she became a judge, to investigate Howe. She was one of several senior lawyers hired to look into complaints about Howe's practice.

Howe will only be allowed to question the judge on the work she performed for the society prior to her appointment to the bench.

Howe wants 12 judges to testify

The panel is refusing Howe's request to subpoena 11 other judges, including Alanna Murphy, who presides in Dartmouth.

Murphy complained to the society about Howe's conduct in her courtroom. Howe has accused her during arguments at his hearing of holding him to a higher standard than other lawyers who appear before her.

The judges were opposed to testifying and sent a lawyer to argue against the subpoena request. The lawyer, Bruce Outhouse, invoked the principle of judicial immunity in asking that the subpoenas not be issued.

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In its decision, the panel noted that immunity must be upheld.

'It is in the public's interest the immunity exists'

"However, such immunity is not designed as a personal protection for judges, but is rather a protection for the constitutionally critical principle of judicial independence," the panel wrote.

"It is in the public's interest the immunity exists."

In addition to Murphy and Buckle, Howe tried to subpoena most of the judges presiding in provincial courtrooms in Halifax and Dartmouth, as well as Judge Warren Zimmer, who generally hears cases in Truro.

Howe's disciplinary hearing started last fall and has been holding hearings, off and on, over the space of several months. The panel is already looking at dates in 2017 to try to finish a process that was supposed to take only a couple of weeks.

The session resumes later this month.