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MTM v. LD2/14/2002
her than a court commissioner, must abide by the Canon. Code of Judicial Conduct at 893. This is too narrow a reading of the Code.
[ ] The official commentary to section A of the "Application of the Code of Judicial Conduct" specifies how the Canon is to be applied:
The four (4) categories of judicial service in other than a full- time capacity are necessarily defined in general terms because of the widely varying forms of judicial service. . . . The determination of which category and, accordingly, which specific Code provisions apply to an individual judicial officer, depend upon the facts of the particular judicial service. Code of Judicial Conduct at 893.
This guidance is consistent with the admonition contained in the Code's preamble that "[t]he Canons and Sections are rules of reason. They should be applied consistent with constitutional requirements, statutes, other court rules and decisional law and in the context of all relevant circumstances." Code of Judicial Conduct at 870.
[ ] We can start the analysis of this issue by noting that there is no such thing in Wyoming as a district court magistrate. District court commissioners, on the other hand, are provided for in Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 5-3-301 through 5-3-312 (LexisNexis 2001). In particular, Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 5-3-312 establishes the limits upon a district court commissioner's practice of law:
No district court commissioner shall accept employment or retainer as an attorney-at-law, or give any advice as such in any action, cause or proceeding pending before him as such commissioner; and he shall not be authorized to act as such commissioner, or exercise any of the powers thereof, in any action, case or proceeding in which or as to the subject thereof he shall have been engaged, employed or retained as an attorney, or in reference to which and the subject thereof he shall have given any advice.
[ ] We interpret this statute and the Code of Judicial Conduct as authorizing an attorney who happens to be a district court commissioner to practice law in the court in which he has been appointed, in all cases except those specifically enumerated in the statute.
[ ] On July 1, 2000, the statutes regarding former county courts, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 5- 5-101 through 5-5-175 (Lexis 1999) were revised and renumbered as Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 5-9-101 through 5-9-153 (LexisNexis 2001), and Article 2, concerning Magistrates of the Circuit Court, was added as Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 5-9-201 through 5-9-213 (LexisNexis 2001). Under former Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 5-5-162, judges of the county court could appoint as many commissioners or adjunct commissioners that public interest required. Under the revised statutes, county courts became known as circuit courts and commissioners became known as magistrates.
[ ] The revised statutes recognize two types of magistrates: full-time magistrates and part-time magistrates. There is no suggestion in the record that the appellees' counsel now is or has ever been a full-time magistrate, so we will consider only the part-time magistrate position. In that regard, it is clear from a comparison of the statutes that the function of the part-time circuit court magistrate essentially is the same function once performed by the county court commissioner. While the Code of Judicial Conduct has not been amended to take cognizance of these statutory changes, we find that the spirit and intent of both the statutes and the Code are best honored by considering a part-time circuit court magistrate to be the equivalent of a court commissioner for the purposes of subsections (2) and (3) of section C of the Code quoted above. As such, part-time magistrates are similarly exempted from the dicta
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