The Application section establishes when the various Rules apply to a judge or judicial candidate.
I. Applicability of this Code (A) The provisions of the Code apply to all full-time judges. Part II of this section identifies those provisions that apply to part-time judges. Canon 4 applies to judicial candidates. (B) A judge, within the meaning of this Code, is anyone who is authorized to perform judicial functions, including but not limited to, justices of the supreme court, district court judges and commissioners, circuit court judges and magistrates, special masters, referees, municipal judges and alternate municipal judges, and a retired judge, commissioner or magistrate who has been given a general or special appointment to hear cases by the Wyoming Supreme Court, but shall not include administrative hearing officers or other members of the administrative law judiciary. COMMENT
[1] The Rules in this Code have been formulated to address the ethical obligations of any person who serves a judicial function, and are premised upon the supposition that a uniform system of ethical principles should apply to all those authorized to perform judicial functions. [2] The determination of which category and, accordingly, which specific Rules apply to an individual judicial officer, depend upon the facts of the particular judicial service. [3] In recent years many jurisdictions have created what are often called "problem solving" courts, in which judges are authorized by court rules to act in nontraditional ways. For example, judges presiding in drug courts and monitoring the progress of participants in those courts' programs may be authorized and even encouraged to communicate directly with social workers, probation officers, and others outside the context of their usual judicial role as independent decision makers on issues of fact and law. When the law specifically authorizes conduct not otherwise permitted under these Rules, they take precedence over the provisions set forth in the Code. Nevertheless, judges serving on "problem solving" courts shall comply with this Code except to the extent the law provides and permits otherwise. II. Part-Time Judge A judge who serves on a part-time basis by retention election or under a continuing appointment, including a retired judge who has been given a general or special appointment to hear cases by the Wyoming Supreme Court,
(A) is not required to comply: (1) with Rules 2.10(A) and 2.10(B) (Judicial Statements on Pending and Impending Cases), except for matters heard or pending before him or her while serving as a judge; or (2) at any time with Rules 3.4 (Appointments to Governmental Positions), 3.8 (Appointments to Fiduciary Positions), 3.9 (Service as Arbitrator or Mediator), 3.10 (Practice of Law), 3.11 (Financial, Business, or Remunerative Activities), 3.14 (Reimbursement of Expenses and Waivers of Fees or Charges), 3.15 (Reporting Requirements), 4.1 (Political and Campaign Activities of Judges and Judicial Candidates in General), 4.2 (Political and Campaign Activities of Judicial Candidates in Public Retention Elections), 4.3 (Activities of Candidates for Appointive Judicial Office), and 4.4 (Activities of Judges Who Become Nonjudicial Candidates); and (B) shall not act as a lawyer in a proceeding in which the judge has served as a judge or in any other proceeding related thereto. III. Time for Compliance A person to whom this Code becomes applicable shall comply immediately with its provisions, except that those judges to whom Rules 3.8 (Appointments to Fiduciary Positions) and 3.11 (Financial, Business, or Remunerative Activities) apply shall comply with those Rules as soon as reasonably possible, but in no event later than one year after the Code becomes applicable to the judge.
COMMENT
If serving as a fiduciary when selected as judge, a new judge may, notwithstanding the prohibitions in Rule 3.8, continue to serve as fiduciary, but only for that period of time necessary to avoid serious adverse consequences to the beneficiaries of the fiduciary relationship and in no event longer than one year. Similarly, if engaged at the time of judicial selection in a business activity, a new judge may, notwithstanding the prohibitions in Rule 3.11, continue in that activity for a reasonable period but in no event longer than one year.
Adopted June 23, 2009, effective July 1, 2009.