Press Release  Commission on Judicial Conduct publishes Annual Report covering 2023 activities

Boston, MA — On September 20, 2024, the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s Executive Director, Howard V. Neff, III, published the Commission’s 2023 Annual Report, covering its activities from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2023.

The Commission reports that 906 complaints were filed with the Commission in 2023, and out of those complaints, fifty-four were docketed for investigation or Commission Screening.  For a complaint to be docketed for investigation or Commission Screening, it must allege specific facts that, if true, would constitute judicial misconduct or disability.

For complaints docketed for Commission Screening, including stale complaints and anonymous complaints, the Commission must determine whether the complaint meets the necessary threshold to be investigated.  In 2023, the Commission dismissed three complaints after Commission Screening and forty-two complaints after investigation (including twelve complaints dismissed with an expression of concern to the judge).

Of the complaints received in 2023, 647 complaints were submitted through the Commission’s online complaint form, which first became available on July 22, 2015.

The Commission considered a total of seventy-one docketed complaints in 2023, filed both in 2023 and prior years, and disposed of forty-six of them in 2023.  Twenty-five complaints remained pending at the end of 2023, including twenty-four investigations, and one Rule 13 Submission in progress.

Of the forty-six complaints disposed of in 2023, forty-five of them were dismissed.  One complaint was disposed of through an Informal Adjustment/Agreed Disposition.   

The Commission’s statute and rules, and a copy of the 2023 Annual Report are available on the Commission’s website at: www.mass.gov/cjc.

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