NCJ Number
133171
Journal
Judges' Journal Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 26-29,70-71
Date Published
1991
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The 1990 Model Code of Judicial Conduct is especially important to rural judges, because these judges have close ties with their communities and face pressures that can often lead to isolation.
Abstract
This Code includes several changes from the 1972 code with provisions that should help rural judges. Unlike urban judges, rural judges have no anonymity and often know litigants and their families. Ex parte communications are a particularly troublesome problem, because judges often answer their own telephones and encounter parties to a case in the community. Other areas of the Model Code that pose particular problems for rural judge are those establishing judges' disciplinary responsibilities, covering disqualification, and prohibiting membership in certain types of organizations or acceptance of certain gifts or social hospitality. The Code does not solve the ethical dilemmas that rural judges experience, but it provides more guidance and addresses several crucial problems.