Connecticut Committee on Judicial Ethics
Informal Opinion Summaries
2009-04 (January 27, 2009)
Gifts; Ordinary Social Hospitality; Canons 2, 3 & 5
Issue:
May a
Judicial Official and the Judicial Official’s family
accept an invitation to spend several days with
another couple, with whom they are close personal
friends, both of whom are lawyers, at the friends’
vacation home?
Response:
Based upon the facts presented, the Committee
unanimously agreed that two families vacationing
together at one of the family’s homes, in view of
the fact that the families regularly socialize
together, is part of ordinary social hospitality and
should be permitted subject to the following
conditions: (1) the Judicial Official continues to
recuse him or herself when either of the friends or
the business that employs the friend who serves as
house counsel appear before the Judicial Official,
(2) such recusals are infrequent and do not
interfere with the orderly processing of the court’s
business, and (3) the Judicial Official and his or
her family staying with their friends at the
friends’ vacation home is consistent with the social
hospitality that the Judicial Official and his or
her family have extended to their friends.
Committee on Judicial Ethics