The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics responds to written inquiries from New York state’s approximately 3,600 judges and justices, as well as hundreds of judicial hearing officers, support magistrates, court attorney-referees, and judicial candidates (both judges and non-judges seeking election to judicial office). The committee interprets the Rules Governing Judicial Conduct (22 NYCRR Part 100) and, to the extent applicable, the Code of Judicial Conduct. The committee consists of 27 current and retired judges, and is co-chaired by the Honorable Margaret Walsh, a justice of the supreme court in Albany County, and the Honorable Lillian Wan, an associate justice of the appellate division, second department.
Digest: Where a court attorney-referee initially declines to consider an ex parte application from an attorney asking the referee to issue an order nunc pro tunc to rectify the attorney’s failure to timely file documents, and then denies the same application when made by motion on notice to all parties, the referee need not take any action unless the referee determines that the attorney’s actions constitute a “substantial violation” of the Rules of Professional Conduct. If so, the referee also has full discretion to determine what action is “appropriate” under the circumstances.
