Dr. Conor O'Mahony:

On the issue of variation between judges, the evidence base is limited for some of the reasons I expressed. However, we have evidence that judicial personality and preferences play a significant role. For example, the project in which I was involved identified that some judges almost always appoint guardians ad litem, others do so in certain circumstances and others who are very slow to do so. Judges seem to have set preferences that come through very strongly. One of the most interesting things a judge stated during the compilation of the study was "I don't know what my colleagues are doing". In other words, judges are operating in silos and not necessarily looking at other examples of practice in order to try to gain consistency but, rather, doing their own thing in their own areas.