Proposed legislation aims to make it easier to learn when judges have a conflict of interest. The issue played a big part in the most recent race for state Supreme Court, with incoming justice Annette Ziegler facing probes by the Ethics Board and the state Judicial Commission on allegations she should have recused herself from some cases. State Senator Dave Hansen proposes the legislative solution. Hansen's bill would require clerks of court to make a judge's statement of economic interest available to litigants in a civil suit, and advise them of the rules on recusal for conflict of interest. Judges' statements of economic interest are already available from the state Ethics Board, but most people involved in the legal system aren't aware of that. Hansen's bill got a committee hearing at the Capitol.
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