Judicial Conduct

Judicial Conduct
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

In the course of delivering their mandates, judges and magistrates may face allegations of judicial abuse of power or misconduct. Abuse of power by judges has dire consequences on the capacity of a judge to deliver their mandates and also on the image of the judiciary (Kaczmarek, 2018). When the public lacks confidence in the judiciary, there a need for some form of action from the judge or from the judiciary itself. The judiciary can thus institute a disciplinary action such as judicial disqualification, or the subject judge can recuse themselves from any investigations associated with the case (Appleby & McDonald, 2017). In the provided case study, the judge held the prosecutor in contempt for using unethical language and tone. Besides, the judge proved that he was partisan by meeting the defendant for coffee.
In this case, there are considerable grounds for judicial disqualification or for the judge to recuse themselves from the case. A judge should be fair and impartial when handling cases. Judge Wilson triggered a conflict of interests by meeting the defendant an action which can make him biased. The plaintiff side can thus cite this scenario when calling for a judicial disqualification on the judge (Rosenblum, 2012). However, the judge may defend himself against judicial disqualification action by citing the nonconformance of the state attorneys to issue the critical document to the defendant.
There was harm for the judge to have personal contact with the defendant because the judge may be clouded by impartiality when issuing future decisions on the case.

In any case, the judge is under an ethical obligation to disclose any form of attachment to any party in the case. There are legitimate concerns in the tone and language employed by the judge in addressing the state attorneys (Appleby & McDonald, 2017). The judge can be said to have conducted himself in an inappropriate courtroom demeanor through use of inappropriate and insensitive language.

References
Appleby, G., & McDonald, S. (2017). Pride and prejudice: a case for reform of judicial recusal procedure. Legal Ethics, 20(1), 89-114.
Kaczmarek, P., Kaleta, K. J., Łabieniec, P., Pieniążek, M., Skuczyński, P., & Sykuna, S. (2018). The Concept of Dilemma in Legal and Judicial Ethics. Wydawnictwo CH Beck.
Rosenblum, Ellen F. (2012) Judicial Ethics for All: An Expansive Approach to Judicial Ethics Education. 3rd ed., 2012, pp. 394-403, https://www.ncsc.org/~/media/Files/PDF/Publications/Justice%20System%20Journal/Judicial%20Ethics%20for%20All.ashx. Accessed 11 Oct 2018.