The Rules Governing Judicial Conduct prohibit judges from lending the prestige of their office to advance the private interests of the judge or others and from otherwise allowing personal relationships to influence their judicial conduct and judgment. 22 NYCRR 100.2. It is a fundamental principle of the American system of justice that judicial office is a high public trust which may not be traded upon for private gain. This subject is a focal point of virtually every presentation made by representatives of the Commission at judicial ethics and education programs organized for judges and judicial associations around the state. Nevertheless, a significant number of judges have been disciplined in recent years for engaging in such behavior and violating that trust. In the last 20 years, approximately 50 judges have been disciplined in whole or in part for inappropriately asserting the influence of judicial office to benefit themselves or to benefit or harm others.

Every judge in the Unified Court System is or could be assigned an official email address by the Office of Court Administration, for use on court or other official business. Periodically, the Commission is made aware that some judges use the word “judge” in their personal email addresses, which raises the possibility that judicial office will be invoked when such email accounts are used in connection with private purposes, such as banking transactions, billing disputes, or arranging for certain home or travel services.

In Matter of Robichaud (2022), a part-time city court judge who had a part-time law practice was censured in 2022 for inter alia using her personal email account – “judgeklr@...” – to send and receive messages related to her representation of clients. Notwithstanding her declaration that she would change the name to remove the word “judge,” she did not do so, which resulted in a new investigation and her resignation in 2024. Matter of Robichaud (2024).

The Commission reminds all judges to be careful in general about the use of their judicial titles when engaged in extra-judicial activities, and specifically to avoid using the judicial title in their personal email addresses.

From the 2025 Annual Report, page 28.