Wellington, Sept 3 NZPA - A judicial review application by Supreme Court judge Bill Wilson was premature, Solicitor General David Collins QC said in the High Court at Wellington today.

On the third day of the hearing, Dr Collins said allegations of misbehaviour against Justice Wilson involved issues that could be expected to be brought to a judicial conduct panel.

That is just what Judicial Conduct Commissioner Sir David Gascoigne successfully recommended to acting attorney-general Judith Collins earlier this year.

The beleaguered judge is fighting to have referral to a panel overturned, arguing through lawyer Colin Carruthers, QC, that his conduct did not meet the threshold of justifying removal from the bench.

Justice Wilson was not in court for the review proceedings. Presiding Justices Graham Lang, John Wild and Forrest Miller have reserved their decision.

Dr Collins told the court it was not the role of the commissioner to make findings.

"The true complaints are those that become engaged at the panel stage, not at this stage."

A judicial review could be appropriate after the outcome of a conduct panel's investigation, he said.

"There is a process that really needs to be gone through."

In assessing the threshold of behaviour it should not be lost sight of that judges were expected to be "virtually irreproachable".

Dr Collins said standards expected of judges were not the same as those that applied to other members of society.

A judge's conduct might have drastic personal consequences but the same actions by an ordinary person might not.

Retired judge Edmund (Ted) Thomas, who had interested party status for the judicial review proceedings, was one of three people who filed complaints to the commissioner about Justice Wilson.

The alleged misconduct concerned accusations of bias and the judge's failure to fully disclose his business relationship with Alan Galbraith, a QC involved in Court of Appeal cases at which Justice Wilson was presiding with two other judges.

Addressing the court today, Sir Edmund said he had not complained on moral grounds but because "the integrity of the courts and the judiciary had to come first".

Although he has been accused of breaching confidence and legal privilege, and been labelled "dishonourable," the former appellate judge said he intervened because he would not be complicit in anything like a cover-up.

Sir Edmund became involved through conversations with Jim Farmer, QC, who was advising Mr Galbraith.

Justice Wilson, 64, who has been on leave since May, is the first judge in this country to be referred to a judicial conduct panel. The office of commissioner was established five years ago.

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