Sitting judges challenged by an assistant public defender do not have to automatically recuse themselves from cases in which other assistant public defenders from the same office appear before them, according to the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.

Acting March 11 in Opinion Number: 2024-02, the committee  responded to a question from a solo county judge in a rural area where there are no other county level judges who can readily switch assignments with the inquiring judge. The judicial candidate does not regularly appear before the inquiring judge but has the active support of the office supervisor who has posted his support on the candidate’s webpage.

The panel held there is no conflict as long as the judicial candidate does not appear before the inquiring judge and there is no need for the judge to place on the record that the office of the public defender has no objection to the inquiring judge presiding over each case individually.