New York: Attorney & Judicial Discipline
Who regulates lawyers and judges in New York, how complaints are filed, counted, and adjudicated, and where the complaint and disposition numbers come from.
Attorney discipline
Who regulates lawyers in New York Partial statistics
Attorney discipline in New York is administered by the Four Appellate Division Grievance Committees (no single statewide agency); NYSBA compiles combined report, under the ultimate authority of the New York Court of Appeals.
About -116.0% of complaints proceed past initial screening (2007); the rest are screened out or dismissed.
How complaints are filed
A complaint (often called a grievance) against a lawyer is filed directly with the Four Appellate Division Grievance Committees (no single statewide agency); NYSBA compiles combined report, typically via an online or printable complaint form. Filing is free and no lawyer is needed. The agency screens each filing to confirm it involves an attorney under its jurisdiction and conduct that could violate the rules of professional conduct; filings that survive screening are opened for investigation. The disciplinary process addresses professional misconduct — it cannot overturn a case result or award damages.
How complaints are counted
Aggregate statistics are only partially published. Available metrics: matters processed, complaints, dispositions, charges, discipline by department. Format: Annual-report PDFs; coverage: statewide combined 2022–2024; 1st Dept 2002–2024. 2nd/3rd/4th Dept lack accessible standalone reports; best aggregate is the 2015 Statewide Commission report. Where Vitreo shows figures for this jurisdiction, gaps are filled from the ABA Survey on Lawyer Discipline Systems (S.O.L.D.), the annual national survey — clearly flagged in our dataset.
How complaints are adjudicated
New York has no single statewide disciplinary agency. Attorney discipline is run by the courts: each of the four departments of the Appellate Division maintains an Attorney Grievance Committee that screens, investigates, and prosecutes complaints, and the Appellate Division itself imposes public discipline (censure, suspension, disbarment). Procedures and even sanction practices historically varied by department; statewide rules (22 NYCRR Part 1240) have narrowed but not eliminated those differences.
| Year | Complaints received | Publicly disciplined |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 3,517 | 76 |
Judicial discipline
Who regulates judges in New York Publishes statistics
Complaints against New York state judges are handled by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC). (Federal judges sitting in New York are covered by the separate federal system.)
How complaints are filed
Complaints about New York judges are filed in writing with the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC). Filing is free and confidential. The commission's jurisdiction covers judicial conduct — bias, demeanor, conflicts, delay, abuse of office — not the legal correctness of rulings, which must be challenged on appeal. Complaints are screened confidentially, and most are dismissed at that stage.
How complaints are counted
This state publishes aggregate judicial discipline statistics — complaints, dismissals, investigations, formal proceedings, removals, suspensions, censures, admonishments. Published as: Annual-report PDF + HTML stats + open-data; coverage: 1975–2026. Among the most comprehensive archives in the country; data.ny.gov record-level since 1977.
How complaints are adjudicated
The Commission on Judicial Conduct investigates and, after formal proceedings, renders its own determination (admonition, censure, or removal). The judge may seek review by the New York Court of Appeals, which can accept, reject, or modify the sanction; absent review, the determination stands.
| Year | Complaints received | Judges publicly disciplined | Removals | Censures | Admonishments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2,440 | — | — | — | — |
| 2023 | 2,982 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 2024 | 3,353 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 |
| 2025 | 3,363 | — | — | — | — |
Sources
Where these numbers come from
- Four Appellate Division Grievance Committees (no single statewide agency); NYSBA compiles combined report — attorney discipline statistics
- Four Appellate Division Grievance Committees (no single statewide agency); NYSBA compiles combined report — main site
- New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) — judicial discipline statistics / annual reports
- New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct (CJC) — main site
- ABA Survey on Lawyer Discipline Systems (S.O.L.D.)
- NCSC Center for Judicial Ethics — annual state judicial-discipline reviews