Topics: Conflict of Interest/Failure to Disqualify

Opinion 172

Summary: No judge should have any interest, financial or otherwise, in a private, for-profit, probation service company. Issued: September 25, 1992

Opinion 173

Summary: A judge should not accept a substantial gift from anyone, including an individual who is a minor stockholder in a company that has been a party in the judge's court in the past and is likely to continue to come before that court as a party. Issued: September 25, 1992

Opinion 174

Summary: A magistrate may appropriately describe in writing the role of the Magistrate Court in administering the local child abuse protocol, but no magistrate should personally participate in child fatality investigations. Issued: October 23, 1992

Opinion 176

Summary: A sitting Georgia Court of Appeals judge may accept appointment by the President to serve on the Board of Directors of the federal State Justice Institute. Issued: October 23, 1992

Opinion 178

Summary: A part-time municipal court judge may serve on a Public Safety Coordinating Council established by a city police department, unless such service operates to cast doubt on the judge's capacity to impartially decide issues that may come before the court. Issued: January 29, 1993

Opinion 179

Summary: A full-time county department head (Animal Control & Code Enforcement) is an employee of a law enforcement body and, as such, may not serve as a part-time magistrate. A full-time county tax appraiser would appear to have no involvement in law enforcement and may serve as a part-time magistr...

Opinion 180

Summary: The Code of Judicial Conduct does not prohibit a pro tempore juvenile court judge from handling cases as a lawyer in the juvenile court on which the part-time judge periodically serves or before the judge who makes the part-time appointment. Issued: January 20, 1993

Opinion 181

Summary: No judge may simultaneously serve as a prosecuting attorney of any kind - solicitor, district attorney, assistant or otherwise - in any court. Issued: January 22, 1993

Opinion 182

Summary: No per se basis exists for judicial disqualification simply because a judge's spouse holds a contract to handle child support enforcement cases for the local district attorney, or a judge's sibling is an assistant district attorney within the circuit where the judge decides criminal cases, ...

Opinion 183

Summary: This opinion expressly withdraws opinion number 175, by reason of amendment to O.C.G.A. 15-1-8 to permit dual service as judge and legal counsel for the same local governing authority. Issued: June 25, 1993

Opinion 184

Summary: Designation by a judge of the judge's law clerk, who is a duly appointed magistrate, to preside in cases in the absence of the judge is inappropriate because it leads to the appearance of impropriety, as well as numerous disqualifications and a waste of judicial resources. Issued: June 25,...

Opinion 185

Summary: Regular or exclusive representation of indigent criminal defendants by a part-time judge, whose judicial responsibilities include issuance of criminal warrants or trial of criminal cases, might destroy the appearance of impartiality and integrity essential to the administration of justice a...

Opinion 186

Summary: It is inappropriate for a Georgia judge to be in charge of a fund raising campaign or to solicit funds from other judges, all of whom are graduates of a single law school's masters program in jurisprudence, in order to establish a "chair" at that school in honor of the professor who founded...

Opinion 187

Summary: A part-time Associate Judge of Juvenile Court should not preside in cases prosecuted on behalf of the Department of Family and Childrens Services by an attorney associated in law practice with that judge. Issued: September 24, 1993

Opinion 188

Summary: While disqualification can be sought under the general reasonableness standards of the Code, automatic disqualification is not required where the divorced husband of a judge's niece, or any member of this attorney's law firm, appears as counsel. Issued: October 22, 1993

Opinion 189

Summary: It is permissible for a sitting judge to serve as a member of the Georgia Editorial Board of Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Company and receive an honorarium for performing specified duties in connection with such service. Issued: October 22, 1993

Opinion 190

Summary: Subject to restrictions and limitations stated in the Opinion, it is appropriate for a sitting State Court Judge to serve as member of the Advisory Board to the Gwinnett Branch of the Justice Center of Atlanta, despite the fact that the judge routinely refers appropriate cases to the agency...

Opinion 192

Summary: A part-time Juvenile Court Judge, who simultaneously represents the County Board of Education, is not automatically disqualified to preside in all juvenile matters that occur on or near school property. Issued: November 19, 1993

Opinion 193

Summary: It would be inappropriate for a law clerk for a Superior Court Judge to organize and operate a research-for-hire business as such activity would likely lead to violations of Canon 1. Issued: March 25, 1994

Opinion 194

Summary: It would not be inappropriate for the Chief Judge of each judicial circuit, at the request of the State Commission of Family Violence, to convene a meeting to decide how best to form a circuit-wide task force. Issued: April 22, 1994
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