Opinion 25-53

March 27, 2025

Digest: A part-time non-attorney judge may volunteer as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (“CASA”).  However, the judge is disqualified in any matter involving the CASA program, and when the child or a member of the child’s family appears in the judge’s court.

Rules:   22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2(A); 100.3(A); 100.3(E)(1); 100.4(A)(1); 100.4(A)(3); 100.4(C)(3); 100.4(C)(3)(a)(i); Opinion 08-58/08-66.

Opinion:

          A part-time non-attorney judge asks if he/she may undergo training with the CASA program and thereafter serve as a volunteer family court advocate for children.  As explained on the website:

Court Appointed Special Advocates are community volunteers who are recruited, trained and supervised by professional staff and appointed by family court judges to serve as advocates for children who have been abused or neglected.  CASA volunteers make a life-changing difference for New York’s most vulnerable children, many of whom are in foster and kinship care.

          A judge must always avoid even the appearance of impropriety and act to promote public confidence in the judiciary’s integrity and impartiality (see 22 NYCRR 100.2; 100.2[A]).  A part-time judge may serve as “an officer, director, trustee or non-legal advisor” of an organization “devoted to the improvement of the law, the legal system or the administration of justice” (22 NYCRR 100.4[C][3]), provided the organization is not likely to “be engaged in proceedings that ordinarily would come before the judge” (22 NYCRR 100.4[C][3][a][i]).  A judge’s extra-judicial activities must be compatible with judicial office and must not “cast reasonable doubt on the judge’s capacity to act impartially as a judge” (22 NYCRR 100.4[A][1]) or “interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties” (22 NYCRR 100.4[A][3]).  A judge must disqualify in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality “might reasonably be questioned” (22 NYCRR 100.3[E][1]), but ultimately a judge’s judicial duties “take precedence over all the judge’s other activities” (22 NYCRR 100.3[A]).

          We have previously addressed a very similar question.  In Opinion 08-58/08-66, we advised that a non-lawyer part-time town justice may appear in family court as an advocate for a not-for-profit organization’s client and may accept employment with CASA to train and supervise program volunteers, subject to certain limitations.  For example, we advised that the judge was disqualified from presiding over any matter involving the not-for-profit organization or CASA program or any matter heard in the judge’s court pursuant to certain provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law that involves a client of the not-for profit organization or a member of the client’s family (id.).

          Here, we similarly conclude that the inquiring judge may volunteer in the CASA program, serving as an advocate for a child in neglect or abuse cases in family court.  However, the judge is disqualified from presiding in any matter involving the CASA program, and where a child for whom the judge has advocated in family court, or a member of the child’s family, appears in the judge’s court.  If the need for disqualification becomes so frequent that it interferes with the proper performance of the judge’s judicial duties, he/she cannot continue in both positions and must resign from one or the other (id.).