ABA Report Calls for Significant Changes to PA's Judicial Conduct System

Asked by the state court system to examine Pennsylvania's judicial conduct system, an American Bar Association committee has recommended significant changes that include no longer requiring complainants to sign their complaints.

In its report which shed light on some inner-workings of the board before offering 14 recommendations, the ABA's Standing Committee on Professional Discipline was clear that the 56-page document was intended to be "forward-looking," and the Luzerne County scandal that brought the judicial discipline system under scrutiny was not the main focus of its review.

"While the incidents in Luzerne County and the action or inaction of lawyers, judges, and entities in response to them provided important context for the team's study, that series of events was not the focus of the consultation team's or the Standing Committee's review," the ABA's committee said in the report. "Rather, the misconduct committed in Luzerne County illustrates the vulnerabilities of the system as currently structured."

The report also recommended some other key changes, such as doing away with the four-year statute of limitations, altering the way people are appointed to the Judicial Conduct Board and Court of Judicial Discipline, and informing complainants of the status of their complaints.

The ABA's report arrived about a week after advocacy group Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts released its own recommendations and just over a year after the Interbranch Commission on Juvenile Justice, or ICJJ, released its report.

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ABA Report Calls for Significant Changes to Pa.'s Judicial Conduct System