Panel Seeks Removal of Probate Judge

A disciplinary panel has recommended that Albany County Surrogate’s Court Judge Cathryn M. Doyle, 60,  should be removed for failing to reveal conflicts and recusing herself on multiple occasions.

The panel said, “From 2007 to 2011, Judge Doyle failed to disqualify herself from, and took judicial action in, nine matters involving attorneys with whom she had close professional and personal relationships.”  Judge Doyle said the matters, which involved admitting wills to probate and determining trust beneficiaries, were “ministerial.”

Judge Doyle was previously censured in 2007 for her testimony in support of a now-disbarred former judge.

See Martha Neil, Panel Seeks Ouster of Judge Who Didn’t Reveal Conflicts; She Calls Probate-Court Cases ‘Ministerial’, ABA Journal, Nov. 14, 2013.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.