Judge Swap in Microsoft EU Case

The head judge of the European Union's Court of First Instance, which is handling the antitrust case against Microsoft, has moved to replace the judge overseeing the case. The proposal, which must be voted on, comes after the current judge published criticism of the court in a French journal.

Microsoft had filed its case against the EU following an antitrust ruling in March 2004 that ordered the Redmond company to pay 497 million euros and comply with a number of sanctions, which have only recently been agreed upon. Judge Hubert Legal was heading a five-judge panel that was hearing the appeal.

But Legal found himself in hot water earlier this month, following an editorial in the French journal Concurrences in which he said some clerks regarded themselves as "ayatollahs of free enterprise" due to the power they had when translating for judges that do not speak the court's primary French tongue.

Court of First Instance President Bo Vesterdorf plans to transfer the Microsoft case to the court's Grand Chamber, where he will directly oversee its progress. Such a change could delay the case even further, as Legal was endeavoring to hand down a decision by mid-2006.

This will not be the first time Microsoft has seen its judge swapped out during a case. In 2001, during the U.S. Department of Justice antitrust case against Microsoft, U.S. District Judge Thomas Jackson was removed by an appellate court due to his outward bias against Microsoft, which he publicly displayed to reporters.