Colorado judges who are married to other attorneys are only required to recuse themselves from a case if their spouse actually appears in the dispute, the state’s judicial ethics panel clarified last week.

An unnamed judge, whose spouse practices law in the same district, posed a series of questions to the Colorado Judicial Ethics Advisory Board about whether he should recuse himself from hearing criminal cases if his wife is hired on a criminal matter anywhere in the district. Alternatively, he wondered if he should disqualify himself from cases involving a particular subject area in which his wife specializes.

The ethics panel viewed such drastic steps as unnecessary.

“As long as the spouse is not acting as an attorney in a proceeding before the judge, the judge need not recuse,” the body of judges, attorneys and one non-lawyer wrote in an Oct. 28 advisory opinion.

The board elaborated that a judge’s relationship with their spouse is what could raise questions of bias under the Code of Judicial Conduct, not the type of legal work itself. The rules require recusal when spouses are the party to a proceeding, represent any party, are otherwise closely linked to any party or whose interests the case would affect. 

But nowhere is there a requirement to step aside due to the spouse’s legal work generally.

“Based on the specific questions posed, unless the judge’s spouse is acting as an attorney in a proceeding before the judge,” the panel concluded, “the requesting judge need not recuse from presiding over cases involving the same or similar subject matter as the spouse’s case.”