AZ Supreme Court accepts unprecedented Amicus Brief relating to judicial conduct.

Wilenchik and Bartness has had the pleasure of assisting the Maricopa County Justice Courts on a variety of issues, including helping them create professional standards to clarify and illuminate the Code of Judicial Conduct for the Justice Court Bench. At the same time that the Bench as a whole was undertaking this monumental effort, the Commission on Judicial Conduct and the Arizona Supreme Court began investigating the actions of a single Maricopa County Justice of the Peace. After the Commission made its recommendation to the Court, the Bench as a whole felt the need to present the Supreme Court with the direction in which the Justice Court Bench was trying to move, including the professional standards that it was creating. As such, the Bench requested that Wilenchik and Bartness assist them in writing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on the topic of the Commission’s recommendation of discipline. This unprecedented brief was accepted by the Supreme Court and, in the following opinion, the Supreme Court ultimately remanded the case back to the Commission on Judicial Conduct with instructions to change the manner in which they analyzed the case. The Supreme Court’s opinion can be found at http://www.supreme.state.az.us/opin/pdf2007/JC060002.pdf