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A tribunal heard former Gold Coast barrister Patricia Merkin suggested a Family Court trial judge may have been involved in amending or editing audio recordings and the transcript of a custody hearing.

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Ms Merkin, who has previously tutored in health law and ethics at a university, has given an undertaking to a disciplinary tribunal that she will no longer practise in family law.

Her unsubstantiated allegations about the tampering of a court audio and transcripts were referred to Queensland’s Bar Association by the Full Family Court.

Despite the mother she represented listening to the court recording and finding it matched the transcript, Ms Merkin persisted with her allegations in appeal submissions.

Ms Merkin had suggested the audio recording of the Family Court hearing had been tampered with, to delete an asserted incident, before it was transcribed.

The Full Family Court judges were highly critical of Ms Merkin’s conduct at the 2013 appeal, saying it was “most troubling’’ that she had suggested the trial judge may have been involved.

At her disciplinary hearing, Ms Merkin said she still considered it possible that the trial judge, or someone connected with the administration of justice, had interfered with the recording.

In a separate appeal against parenting orders, for another mother, Ms Merkin suggested another trial judge had made orders against a mother that reflected the judge’s own research.  

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The Full Family Court said Ms Merkin had made a serious assertion about the judge, suggesting actual bias by pre-judgment, Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard.