As of mid-November, a shortage has been noted in the financial disclosure reports of federal judges in the United States for the year 2022, records that were expected to be publicly available in a centralized database. A significant number of courts that commonly handle commercial litigation, spanning from New Jersey to the Ninth Circuit, are still missing the necessary reports from many of their presiding judges.
These documents are intended to provide the public with transparency about their judicial officers, detailing any gifts they have received, records of properties bought or sold, and any significant stock market activity. They fulfil an important role in maintaining trust and transparency in the legal system, ensuring there are no conflicts of interest.
A particularly alarming aspect of this lapse in reporting is the absence of a new type of report, designed to provide real-time disclosure of judges’ major financial windfalls. Reporting on these significant financial events is required under federal law, yet these documents have regularly taken over a year to appear in the public record.
To read more about the specifics of this situation, the original reporting by Cara Bayles for Law360 can be found here.