February 8, 2024
Judges are supposed to be fair and impartial. And in most states, judges have to provide an annual accounting of their income, which helps ferret out whether a judge might have a bias in a particular case.
Vermont is not one of those states.
Judges in Vermont can, if they wish, submit financial disclosure documents, but they are not required to, and most don’t. In fact, there has been a substantial rise in the percentage of judges who have chosen to submit blank financial disclosure documents since 2019, when 31% of judges opted not to submit. In 2022, the figure was 49%. Over the those four years, an average of 43% of judges who submitted forms left them blank, listing only their names and signatures without providing any responses — not even “no” to questions.
The trend poses potential for concern regarding the completeness and reliability of disclosed financial information, especially when Vermonet’s form asks about spousal business interests regardless of percentage ownership.
The only investments Vermont judges are required to publicly report are ones over $5,000. When that mark is hit — and the investment is relevant to a case before them — judges are supposed to tell the parties in the case about the conflict of interest.
Next door in New Hampshire, judicial financial disclosure statement forms are considerably more inclusive, asking the source of spousal income, if the judge sits on any charitable organization boards and requiring judges to list any gifts or free event invitations, without the same value minimums and family exemptions that Vermont’s form has.
Among the judges who did submit complete disclosures, several indicated that they had received considerable supplemental income from rental properties, and four judges reported earning over $20,000 in rental income in some years. One judge reported that his income had come from a Queens, New York, property. The form asked for the identity of the tenant; the judge wrote “don’t know.”
Let’s hope he’s not presiding over any eviction actions.