From the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee

Opinion Number: 2017-17
Date of Issue: September 22, 2017

Whether a judge who has recently assumed the bench is required to self-recuse from presiding over cases in which a party was until recently a client of the judge?

ANSWER: No, unless the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

The inquiring judge took office within the past year. The judge is presiding over mortgage foreclosure cases, some of which involve institutional trustees (on behalf of a trust) as the named Plaintiffs. Prior to taking the bench, the judge was hired by a loan servicer on behalf of such institutional trustees who brought suit on behalf of trusts. Some cases the judge may preside over may involve the same trustee Plaintiff which the judge formerly represented, although the loan servicer and the trust are different. Essentially, the loan servicer is different, and the trust is different, but the institutional trustee is the same. The judge always dealt solely with the loan servicer and never directly with the named trustee/Plaintiff. No socializing with the loan servicer or trustee Plaintiff occurred.

The judge inquires as to the appropriateness of presiding over cases in which the judge’s former client (i.e., the trustee/Plaintiff named in the lawsuit) has a different loan servicer than the servicer which previously retained the judge on behalf of the same trustee. The judge has wisely already decided to self-recuse for a minimum of two (2) years from any case in which the judge or the judge’s law firm was/is involved, and will be disclosing the prior relationship in all other cases.