Court Opinion

ID: 9516463
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:43:01.74765+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:25.203370
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
concurring.
While I join in the majority opinion authored by Chief Justice Nix, I am writing separately to emphasize that a recusal motion historically has been intended and should continue to be used as a pre-trial guarantee for a fair and impartial trial. Should a party have reason to believe ab initio that a trial judge cannot conduct an impartial trial, a recusal motion is proper. If in reviewing such motion a trial judge is of the belief that an evidentiary hearing is required then, as the majority correctly holds, the appointment of another judge to conduct the evidentiary hearing and rule upon the issue of disqualification is appropriate. Likewise, as the majority announces today, should the trial judge find no merit in the recusal petition, the trial judge may summarily dismiss the petition. In the event a recusal motion is denied, a litigant can protect against a partial trial through the use of the trial record, by using the record to establish the trial judge’s partiality if such be the case. *204Finally, if a litigant learns of facts after completion of the trial which bring into issue the trial judge’s partiality, then that litigant must preserve that issue in the post-trial motions as he would any other legal issues that may be raised in exceptions or appeals. In this way the appellate court can adequately review the challenge to the trial judge’s impartiality as any other trial error preserved for appeal.