A judicial ethics advisory panel sharply criticized this week the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct for asking a judge to respond to a complaint made by a party in an “ongoing” custody trial before the judge.
The commencement of an investigation mid-trial poses a danger that a litigant will “manipulate” the conduct commission to “disrupt and essentially undermine the judicial process, threaten the judge’s independence and defeat the purpose of the commission,” the Committee on Judicial Ethics wrote in response to a request for guidance from an unidentified judge. The advisory committee described such a result as “deplorable.”
