Press Release  Commission on Judicial Conduct publishes Annual Report covering 2025 activities

Boston, MA — On May 18, 2026, the Commission on Judicial Conduct’s Executive Director, Howard V. Neff, III, published the Commission’s 2025 Annual Report, covering its activities from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025.

The Commission reports that 1,296 complaints were filed in 2025, and of those, forty-three were docketed for investigation or Commission Screening. The Commission received 960 complaints (74.1% of the total complaints filed) through its online complaint form.

For a complaint to be docketed for investigation or Commission Screening, it must allege sufficient specific facts that, if true, would constitute judicial misconduct or disability. The Commission does not have any authority to review a judge’s factual findings or legal conclusions unless there is evidence that the judge’s decisions were made in bad faith.

For complaints docketed for Commission Screening, which includes stale complaints and anonymous complaints, the Commission must determine whether the complaint meets the necessary threshold before it can be investigated. In 2025, the Commission dismissed seven complaints after Commission Screening and thirty-four complaints after investigation (including four complaints dismissed with an expression of concern to the judge).

The Commission considered a total of sixty-eight docketed complaints filed in 2025 and prior years and disposed of forty-four of them in 2025. Twenty-four complaints remained pending at the end of 2025, including twenty-one investigations, one Commission Screening, one Rule 13 Submission in progress, and one complaint with formal charges in progress.

The Commission’s statute and rules, and a copy of the 2025 Annual Report, are available on the Commission’s website: www.mass.gov/cjc.

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