Response to Unfair Criticism Team Mission Statement
When unjustified criticism substantially and negatively affects a judge, the judiciary, or the legal system, a CJA RTC Team is available to advise and assist with that judge’s defense. As part of its diagnostic function, an RTC Team determines whether the criticism is, in fact, unfair or unwarranted. The program is not intended to defend the indefensible, but nonetheless may advise and support a judge through a difficult situation.

Response to Unfair Criticism
A service of the California Judges Association to provide support and counsel to bench officers subjected to unwarranted criticism.

About the Response to Unfair Criticism Service
The Response to Unfair Criticism Service was established to meet the concerns of California judges affected by inaccurate, false, or distorted representations of judicial acts. Such misrepresentations can degrade public confidence in the judiciary.

Through the action of the Response to Unfair Criticism committee members, unfair criticism of judges and the judiciary can be addressed, both privately and publicly if necessary, in a manner that defends the judge from attack and preserves the integrity of the judiciary.

RTC committee members’ responses are prepared according to the Response to Unfair Criticism Committee protocol and are undertaken only with the consent of the reporting judge. The service is available to every bench officer in California.

How Do I Request Assistance?
If you wish to request assistance from the Response to Unfair Criticism Committee, call CJA at (916) 239-4068 or toll free at (866) 432-1CJA (1252) and you will be referred directly to the Chair of the Response to Unfair Criticism Committee. Please be prepared with specific facts, dates, names, phone numbers, links to published articles if any, and concise synopsis of the problem. The Chair will provide any other direction as needed.

Click here to view the Response to Unfair Criticism committee page.