Legal Question in Family Law in California
Conflict of interest on the part of the Judge.
The judge hearing our child custody and visatation case in family court is a close friend of the child's father's drug counselor. This person has made statements that make it clear to us that the Judge has shared personal information about our case outside to courtroom to this person. We would like to have a new Judge assigned to our case that would not have any close ties to either side. How do we go about getting a new Judge? What forms would we need to file with the court?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Conflict of interest on the part of the Judge.
Dear Inquirer:
Nothing herein shall create an attorney-client
relationship, unless a written retainer agreement
is executed by the attorney and client. This
communication contains general information only.
Nothing herein shall constitute an attorney-client
communication nor legal advice. There likely are
deadlines and time-limits associated with your
case; you should contact an attorney of your
choice for legal advice specific to your personal
situation, at once.
If you haven't already done so, please visit my
web site at --
http://home.pacbell.net/edbjr/ OR
http://www.CaliforniaDivorceAttorney.com
The site contains quite a bit of general
information about California Family Law, as well
as information about me (education, experience,
et cetera) and my office (location, hours, fees,
policies).
NOW, IN RESPONSE TO YOUR INQUIRY --
Once the matter is before the judge, you either have to
get the judge to voluntarily recuse himself/herself or file
a motion to disqualify the judge. The former probably will
not be well received coming from a self-represented person,
the latter is complicated and best done by an attorney.
Thanks for sharing your interesting inquiry with
us on LawGuru, and good luck with your case.
Re: Conflict of interest on the part of the Judge.
I hope you are going to do this with the aid of an attoney. You need to do a motion to recuse or disqualify the Judge for a conflict of interest.