§ RULE 1-088.1. PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE TO A DISTRICT JUDGE; RECUSAL; PROCEDURE FOR EXERCISING

Codes > New Mexico Rules of Civil Procedure for the District Courts > Article 10 > RULE 1-088.1.

RULE 1-088.1. PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE TO A DISTRICT JUDGE; RECUSAL; PROCEDURE FOR EXERCISING

A. Limit on Excusals or Challenges. No party shall excuse more than one judge. A party may not excuse a judge after the party has attended a hearing or requested that judge to perform any act other than an order for free process or a determination of indigency.

B. Mass Reassignment. A mass reassignment occurs when one hundred (100) or more pending cases are reassigned contemporaneously.

C. Procedure for Excusing a District Judge. A party may exercise the statutory right to excuse the district judge before whom the case is pending by filing a peremptory election to excuse as follows:

(1) A plaintiff may file a peremptory election to excuse within ten (10) days after filing the complaint. A defendant may file a peremptory election to excuse within ten (10) days after the defendant files the first pleading or motion pursuant to Rule 1-012 NMRA.

(2) Any party may file a peremptory election to excuse within ten (10) days after the clerk mails a notice of reassignment on the parties or completes publication of a notice of a mass reassignment.

(3) In situations involving motions to reopen a case to enforce, modify, or set aside a judgment or order, if the case has been reassigned to a different judge since entry of the judgment or order at issue, the movant may file a peremptory election to excuse within ten (10) days after filing the motion to reopen, and the non-movant may file a peremptory election to excuse within ten (10) days after service of the motion to reopen.

D. Notice of Reassignment. After the filing of the complaint, if the case is reassigned to a different judge, the clerk shall give notice of the reassignment to all parties. When a mass reassignment occurs, the clerk shall give notice of the reassignments to all parties by publication in the New Mexico Bar Bulletin for four (4) consecutive weeks. Service of notice by publication is complete on the date printed on the fourth issue of the Bar Bulletin.

E. Service of Excusal. Any party electing to excuse a judge shall serve notice of such election on all parties.

F. Recusal. After the filing of a timely and correct exercise of a peremptory challenge, that district judge shall proceed no further. No district judge shall sit in any action in which the judge's impartiality may reasonably be questioned under the provisions of the Constitution of New Mexico or the Code of Judicial Conduct, and the judge shall file a recusal in any such action. Upon receipt of notification of recusal from a district judge, the clerk of the court shall give written notice to each party.