Opinion 90-68

June 7 , 1990

Please Note: This opinion was modified by Opinion 97-112, which states: "[T]he Committee has reviewed its holding in Opinion 90-68 ... and now determines that in circumstances where there are multiple Court Clerks and the court concludes that insulating the Court Clerk from involvement in a limited number of cases is practicable, the court may preside over such proceedings, if the judge believes that he/she can remain impartial. The judge must disclose the clerk’s employment relationship on the record, obtain the written consent of the parties to the judge’s continued participation and insulate the Court Clerk from any involvement in those matters."

Digest:         A judge should disqualify himself or herself in cases handled by a law firm which employs the court's part-time clerk as a secretary.

Rules:          22 NYCRR 100.2.

Opinion:

         A part-time Town Justice inquires about the propriety of hearing cases handled by a law firm, which employs as a secretary the part-time Justice Court Clerk of the inquiring Justice's two justice court. The Court Clerk is not a personal appointee of the judge.

         While the Court Clerk is not a personal appointee of the judge, an appearance of impropriety is created if the law firm where the clerk is employed as a secretary represents clients before the judge in the court where the law firm's employee secretary is the Court Clerk, albeit part-time.

         Accordingly, the judge should disqualify himself or herself in matters handled by the law firm which employs the Court Clerk as a secretary.