16. COMMISSION ON LAWYERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS LAUNCHES JUDICIAL ASSISTANCE PROJECT

The initial planning session for a new project of the Commission on Lawyers Assistance, the Judicial Assistance Project, was held on May 4-5, 2006.  The mission of the project is to develop a comprehensive national program that will effectively assist judges who may be depressed, chemically dependent, or have other mental health conditions that impair judicial performance.  The project will combine respect for judges as the pinnacle of the legal profession with an understanding of the need to identify and assist those who may be affected by conditions or diseases that impair their judicial performance and threaten their lives. 

Among the many issues identified by project members as facing judges in either seeking help themselves or assisting other judges who are impaired and in need of help were:

  • Isolation, both individual and institutional.
  • Public expectations. 
  • Institutional denial.
  • Rules structures that make it difficult to help affected judges. 
  • Difficulty of intervening on life-tenured and elected judges.

Project members also identified barriers to getting help for impaired judges.  Among those barriers were:

  • Enabling or protecting the judge by other judges, staff, or family.
  • A lack of resources in lawyer assistance programs to adequately assist judges.
  • The structural nature of the job of judge and the perception of isolation, where perception becomes reality.
  • The respect and decorum necessary to work with judges is also a barrier to reaching them.
  • Judges' belief in their own role and importance.
  • Delay – most administrative judges or other supervisory personnel will only refer an impaired judge when there is no other alternative.  Referral to a LAP is a last resort rather than a first resort. 

Project members established a three-year plan to work on the issue, and divided into four working groups: Education, Judicial Administration, Networking, and Peer-to-Peer.

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