The Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Judicial Conduct recently filed a formal complaint against a Law Division judge who made comments from the bench about his temporary part-time assignment to the Family Part. According to the complaint, the judge on 16 separate occasions “remarked to litigants and their counsel appearing before him that he lacked familiarity with their case, was ignorant of the applicable law and incapable of adjudicating family court matters, and expressed dissatisfaction with the temporary assignment and the method by which that assignment was made… .” One of the comments cited in the complaint was that “I’m working full time in the civil division and I’m literally in the middle of a jury trial that I interrupted to take my Family Division Wednesday. I have no idea what’s going on in this case, zero. So you’re dealing with a judge that is completely inexperienced and untrained in the family division… .”

The judge answered the complaint pro se, took full responsibility for his inappropriate remarks and expressed his regret. We agree with the judge—long-tenured, well-respected and reportedly otherwise unblemished—that “his comments concerning his lack of experience in the Family Division failed to maintain the high standards required of judges and failed to promote public confidence in the judiciary.”