Barrister fined £500 for calling female lawyer ‘hysterical woman’
A 66-year-old barrister has been fined £500 after calling a female lawyer an “hysterical woman” at Worthing County Court.
London lawyer Feliks Kwiatkowski was fined after he said a witness statement – that had been drafted and signed by a female lawyer – was the work of an “hysterical woman”.
After being challenged over his comments, Kwiatkowski later said: “I have been practicing since before this century. When more women joined the profession, the ground shifted.”
“You do get stupid and unreasonable men in the profession, but the ground shifted – the number of incidents of overegging the pudding and just going overboard in a routine situation multiplied,” the barrister said.
When the opposing counsel asked whether Kwiatkowski was claiming women are “intemperate” the lawyer said “yes, that was the word, intemperate.”
Kwiatkowski, who was called to the Bar in July 1977, was fined £500 and ordered to pay £500 in costs to the Bar Standards Board (BSB). The barrister has the right to appeal the tribunal’s decision.
According to a profile of the barrister on the Bar council’s website, Kwiatowski was born to in Sussex to Polish parents.
He graduated with a law degree from Bristol University in 1976 before becoming a barrister the following year. He plays chess to a National League standard.