The United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio has updated its policy regarding identification of financial conflicts of interest, which supplements the Judicial Conference policy.

The Court’s existing policy requires that each judge identify potential financial conflicts and that lists of those conflicts be maintained in the Court’s electronic case filing system. New cases filed in the Southern District of Ohio are automatically checked against these lists, and judges are notified if a litigant or interested party representing a potential conflict is identified.

The Clerk of Court will provide bi-annual reports to each judge, identifying any actions in which a potential conflict has been reported by the filing system and reminding judges to update the list against which cases are checked.

A federal statute and Canon 3C of The Code of Conduct for United States Judges provide that “a judge shall disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” Further guidance is available in Canon 3D of the Code of Conduct, and guidance on selected disqualification topics can be found in the Published Advisory Opinions of the Committee on Codes of Conduct.