Few Judges Disciplined on Conduct Complaints
Fair Courts E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Associated Press
Source: Indianapolis Star
Date: 6/1/2004
Article reports that the Indiana Commission on Judicial Qualifications _dismissed 85 percent of the complaints filed in the past four years and rarely publicly disciplined judges._ Instead _private cautions,_ confidential letters of warning, were issued to many of the offending judges. About 1 percent of the more than 1,000 cases investigated by the Commission resulted in public discipline. Meg Babcock, an attorney for the Commission, explained that _If there are no priors and they [the offending judges] feel remorseful, we may go ahead and do the private caution._ Moreover, Babcock said that many allegations of misconduct are actually issues for legal appeals and therefore fall outside of the Commission_s jurisdiction.