Navigation JEAC opinion draws line between education and advocacy in domestic violence roles
A judge can be assigned to unified family court, hearing civil interpersonal violence injunction cases, and interact on an ad hoc basis with a local domestic violence fatality response team (DVFRT) for the limited purposes of offering recommendations and insights from a judicial perspective.
However, in response to the question, “May a judge who presides over misdemeanor domestic violence cases and civil domestic violence injunction cases serve on the county’s Domestic Violence Oversight Board if it adopts as part of its mission statement that it is ‘survivor-centered’ and exists to ‘support those affected by domestic violence?’” the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee answered “No,” advising the inquiring judge to end membership and limit participation to speaking, lecturing, and teaching about law-related topics with the organization if the change in mission is adopted.
A May 27 JEAC Opinion, 2025-11, addressed two separate inquiries from different judges in the same opinion to highlight the similarities and differences between the requests.
