Rule 5-205 Effect of advisory opinion.

If a judge or someone running for judicial office asks the ethics committee for an opinion and then follows that advice, they can use the opinion to defend themselves later. This means that if someone files a complaint about their conduct, the judge can point to the opinion and show they were just doing what they were told was allowed.

This gives judges some protection when they genuinely try to follow the rules. If they ask for guidance in good faith and act based on that guidance, they should not get punished for it later, as long as their actions actually matched what the opinion said. The key requirement is that the judge's conduct must line up with what the opinion actually advised, not just loosely relate to it.

This rule matters because it encourages judges to ask questions when they are unsure about ethics rules, instead of guessing and hoping for the best. It creates a safer way for judges to check their behavior against the rules before acting, which helps prevent ethics violations in the first place.