Opinion 90-191

January 7, 1991

Note: This opinion has been overruled by Opinion 08-132.

Dear Justice:

         The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, at its meeting of December 11, 1990, considered your inquiry (90-191) dated December 2, 1990, inquiring whether you may request a court clerk to transfer your client’s case from a lawyer-judge to a non-lawyer judge, prior to the first return date, so that you may represent the client.

         As stated in Opinion 90-23, to which you refer, a case may not be transferred from a lawyer-judge to a non-lawyer judge, at any stage in the litigation, to permit another lawyer-judge to represent a client. Accordingly, you may not request that the clerk reassign your client’s case to another judge.

                                                                     Very truly yours,

                                                                     Samuel J. Silverman, Chair