The scholarly Joel Cohen has written two articles: “Is Counsel ‘Obligated’ to seek a Judge’s Recusal?” (June 13, 2017) and “How Do We Judge the Judges?” (April 4, 2018). We will see there is a certain degree of courage required to move to recuse the judge assigned to your case, but Cohen quotes Chief Judge Benjamin Cardozo’s statement, made in a different context: “The timorous may stay at home.” Murphy v. Steeplechase Amusement, 250 N.Y. 479 (1979). A motion to recuse the judge, where there is sufficient cause, can lead to adverse and destructive consequences to the attorney-client relationship.
I have been involved in four motions to recuse. The last one is on appeal and we choose to withhold discussion of the reasoning, except to say that the court required a showing of actual bias.
