Section 5. Impartial and Diligent Performance of Duties

The judicial duties of members should take precedence over all other activities, so far as is practicable. A member’s judicial duties include all the duties of office prescribed by law. In the performance of these duties, the following standards apply:

A. Adjudicative Responsibilities.

(1) A member should be faithful to the law and should be unswayed by partisan interests, public clamor, or fear of criticism.

(2) A member should maintain order and decorum in proceedings before the member.

(3) A member should be patient, dignified, and courteous to litigants, witnesses, lawyers, and others with whom the member deals in his or her official capacity, and should require similar conduct of lawyers, court staff and officials, and others subject to the member’s direction and control.

(4) A member should accord to every person who is legally interested in a proceeding, or to the person’s lawyer, full right to be heard according to law, and, except as authorized by law, must not consider ex parte communications concerning a pending proceeding. Members of the Court and Court staff shall not initiate nor, to the extent possible, engage in ex parte communications concerning a case pending before the Court.

(5) A member should dispose promptly of the business of the Court.

(6) Members and Court staff should abstain from public comment about a pending proceeding in the Court or a matter which may come before the Court. This subsection does not prohibit members or Court staff specifically authorized by the Court from making public statements in the course of their official duties or from explaining for public information the procedures of the Court.

B. Administrative Responsibilities. A member should diligently discharge his or her administrative responsibilities and facilitate the performance of the administrative responsibilities of other members and Court staff. Court staff should perform their duties with diligence and fidelity.

C. Disqualification.

(1) A member shall not participate in the adjudication of any matter in which the member is a complainant, the subject of a Board complaint, a party or a witness.

(2) A member should not participate in a proceeding in which the member’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to instances where:

(a) the member has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding;

(b) the member served as a lawyer in the matter in controversy, or a lawyer with whom the member practices or previously practiced law served during such association as a lawyer concerning the matter, or the member or such lawyer has been a material witness concerning it; or

(c) the member or the member’s spouse, or a person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse of such a person:

(i) is a party to the proceeding, or an employee of a party;

(ii) is acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;

(iii) is known by the member to have a substantial financial interest in the outcome of the proceeding or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding; or

(iv) is to the member’s knowledge likely to be a material witness in the proceeding.

(3) A member should inform himself or herself about that member’s personal interests and make a reasonable effort to be informed about the personal or financial interests of the member’s spouse and persons within the third degree of relationship to either of them or their spouses.

(4) For the purposes of this section, the degree of relationship is calculated according to the civil law system.