Opinion 90-10

January 18, 1990

Digest:         A part-time judge, who practices law, may not appear in any court in the county presided over by a judge who is permitted to practice law.

Rules:          22 NYCRR 100.5(f)

Opinion: 

         A part-time judge, who also is an attorney, inquires whether another part-time lawyer-judge in his county, before whom he is representing a client, must transfer the case to a non-lawyer judge before whom the part-time judge could appear.

         Section 100.5(f) of the Rules of the Chief Administrator states that a judge who is permitted to practice law shall not “practice law in any other court in the county in which his or her court is located which is presided over by a judge who is permitted to practice law.”

         Pursuant to this provision, the inquiring judge may not appear in any court in the county, for any purpose, which is presided over by a judge who may practice law. This Committee cannot issue an opinion as to the question of the propriety of transferring the case, as the inquiry comes from the attorney, rather than the presiding judge, whose discretion and conduct would be involved. That presiding judge has posed no question to the Committee. In addition, the Committee cannot intervene in a disputed issue in pending litigation.