Exceptions to Financial Disclosure

With regard to judicial candidates filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100, the Commission is authorized to grant only extensions of time to file, and deletion requests.

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Filing Extension
Filing Extension (judicial candidates)
Notice of Automatic Tax Extension
22 NYCRR §40.1(i)(3) and §40.2(a)(ii)(a)
22 NYCRR §7400.2
22 NYCRR §100.5(A)(4)(g)
22 NYCRR §7400.7

If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, or a judicial candidate filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100, you may request an extension of time to file your financial disclosure statement on the grounds of justifiable cause or undue hardship. You must file such request with the Commission on or before the date that your financial disclosure statement is due.

If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, no extension of time to file shall be granted beyond sixty days of the original due date, unless:

1. you are currently on leave and will not return to your office within that sixty days.  If so, the time  to file may be extended for no more than four weeks from the date that you return to the office; or

2. you ask for a filing extension in response to a notice to cure.  If so, the time  to file may be extended for no more than four weeks from the date  you request the extension; or

3. you have made a filing exception request. If so, the time  to file may be extended for no more than four weeks from the date of the Commission decision pertaining to the request. 

If you are a judicial candidate filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100, no extension of time to file shall be granted beyond thirty-five days after you become a candidate.


If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, and you have applied for an automatic extension of time to file your income tax return with the Internal Revenue Service, and you do not have the information necessary to respond to one or more questions on the financial disclosure statement, you must file a financial disclosure statement, without the relevant information, on or before the date that your financial disclosure statement is due. Your partial statement must be filed with a Notice of Automatic Extension. You must file the missing information in a supplementary statement of financial disclosure within 7 days after your IRS extension expires.


Individual Filing Exemption Request
Job Title Filing Exemption Request
22 NYCRR §40.1(i)(8)
22 NYCRR §7400.1

If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, and you have not been designated a policy-maker for the purpose of financial disclosure, you may request an exemption from filing on the grounds that the public interest does not require disclosure and that your duties do not involve any of the duties set forth in Section 40.1(i)(8) of the Rules of the Chief Judge. Employee organizations may request filing exemptions on behalf of all employees who share the same job title. A filing exemption request from an individual must be filed with the Commission on or before the date the individual's financial disclosure statement is due. A filing exemption request must be filed by an employee organization on or before March 1st of the year in which the exemption is requested.

If you are required to file because it has been determined that, for the purpose of financial disclosure, you hold a policy-making position, the Commission does not have the authority to exempt you from filing and therefore will not consider a filing exemption request. The determination of policy-maker status is not made by the Commission, but by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, the Presiding Justice of each Appellate Division, and the Chief Administrator of the Courts.

In applying the public interest standard, the Commission considers the duties you may be called upon to perform. The Commission weighs the strong public interest in disclosure against your privacy rights. In this weighing process, the Commission considers your role in the judicial, administrative or managerial process of the Unified Court System. The Commission considers all relevant factors, including but not limited to, the potential for conflict of interest and use of public office for personal gain in the performance of your actual or potential job duties.

Judiciary Law § 211 (4) and 22 NYCRR Part 40 establish a strong public policy favoring disclosure. Thus applicants otherwise required to file, who have requested an exemption from filing, must demonstrate that an individual exception to this policy is warranted.

The Commission does not have the authority to consider filing exemption requests from judicial candidates filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100.

"Family" Exemption Request
22 NYCRR §40.1(i)(7)
22 NYCRR §7400.3

If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System, filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, you may request an exemption from reporting one or more items of information pertaining to your spouse or unemancipated children on the grounds that the information will have no material bearing on the discharge of the your official duties. You must provide all information requested in the exemption application, including the information you are seeking to have exempted. You must file such request with the Commission on or before the date that your financial disclosure statement is due.

If you request a spousal exemption on the grounds that you have no knowledge of your spouse's assets, and that your spouse refuses to supply this information to you, you must so state specifically in the form of an affidavit. You must, at a minimum, convince the Commission that your spouse refuses to provide the information, that you have no other source regarding this information, and that you have made a bona fide attempt to obtain, and cannot obtain, the information. Other potentially relevant, but not necessarily controlling, matters include the circumstances of, and reasons for, your spouse's refusal to provide you with the relevant information, the duration and consistency over time of your spouse's refusal to disclose such information to you, and whether you and your spouse file or have filed joint federal, state or local tax returns. If you and your spouse have filed a joint tax return, you must at a minimum report such information as is available from that return.

In deciding whether the information will have no material bearing on the discharge of your official duties, the Commission considers whether the disclosure of the information could pose a safety threat to your family, and the nature of that threat; whether the information may relate in a substantial and important way to your official duties; whether the information could reveal or relate to an actual or potential conflict of interest; your role in the judicial, administrative or managerial process of the Unified Court System; whether you have access, or can obtain access, to the information; such other factors as may be relevant.

The Commission does not have the authority to consider "family" filing exemption requests from judicial candidates filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100.


Deletion Request
22 NYCRR §40.1(i)(6)
22 NYCRR §7400.4
22 NYCRR §100.5(A)(4)(g)
22 NYCRR §7400.7

If you are a state-paid judge, justice, or a nonjudicial officer or employee of the Unified Court System filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 40, or a judicial candidate filing pursuant to 22 NYCRR Part 100, you may request the deletion of one or more items of information from the copy of your financial disclosure statement made available for public inspection on the grounds that the information will have no material bearing on the discharge of your official duties. Such request must be filed on or before the date that your financial disclosure statement is due. If you have been granted an extension of time to file your statement, your time to file a deletion request is extended as well. A deletion request will not be considered unless it is filed with a complete financial disclosure statement including the information you seek to have deleted from public inspection.

In deciding whether the information will have no material bearing on the discharge of your official duties, the Commission considers whether the disclosure of the information could pose a safety threat to your family, and the nature of that threat; whether the information may relate in a substantial and important way to your official duties; whether the information could reveal or relate to an actual or potential conflict of interest; your role in the judicial, administrative or managerial process of the Unified Court System; such other factors as may be relevant.