A disciplinary tribunal has dismissed five charges levelled at campaigning family barrister Charlotte Proudman in relation to a series of tweets criticising a judgment in a marital dispute.

The high-profile case related to a 14-part tweet thread Proudman posted in April 2022 about a judgment in a case in which she represented a wife in dispute with a husband who was a barrister and part-time judge.

She had claimed the case, in which her client alleged she had been coerced into signing a post-nuptial agreement, had “echoes of the ‘boys’ club’”, asserting: "I will never accept the minimization of domestic abuse."

She described today's decision by the Bar Tribunal and Adjudication Service as a "turning point' for women's rights and a barrister's freedom of speech".

The Bar Standards Board (BSB) had claimed the tweets had inaccurately reflected the ruling by now-retired High Court judge Sir Jonathan Cohen and “contained seriously offensive, derogatory language which was designed to demean and/or insult the judge”.

Delivering a verbal ruling this morning, His Honour Nicholas Ainley said the tweets had "come very close" to what the judge had found and were factually inaccurate "only to a minor degree”.

He added that Proudman’s criticisms of the judge had not met the test that needed to be applied for her to lose her freedom of expression protection under the European Convention on Human Rights.

"These tweets will not have been pleasant for any judge to read," he said. "No-one would enjoy getting comments like that when they have done their professional best in a difficult situation. They may even be thought to be hurtful. But they are not gravely damaging to the judiciary. We take the view the judiciary of England and Wales is far more robust than that."

Proudman had begun the thread of tweets by acknowledging she had lost the case, stating that she did not accept the judge’s reasoning and pointing out that her client's husband was a part-time judge.

She added: "Demeaning the significance of domestic abuse has the effect of silencing victims and rendering perpetrators invisible".

She went on to characterise the judge’s statement that the wife had “set her sights too high [financially]” as: “A misogynistic tale as old as time, the woman is failing to get what she wants so she makes dramatic allegations.”

In a statement issued shortly after the ruling, Proudman described it as “a turning point for both women’s rights and a barrister’s freedom to speak out against domestic abuse”.

She added: “It is a wake-up call: misogyny within the legal profession must be eradicated, and the right to challenge harmful systemic attitudes towards domestic abuse must be allowed. The BSB has proven itself unfit for purpose. In my view, the BSB’s case against me is a clear instance of sex discrimination.”

Proudman, who is a tenant at Goldsmith Chambers, was shortlisted for the Woman of the Year category in this year's Women and Diversity in Law Awards, which are hosted by The Global Legal Post, for her work supporting women and girls who are victims of male violence. She was named Advocate of the Year in 2023.