Rule 8.2 Statements Concerning Judges and Other Adjudicatory Officers

Lawyers are allowed to criticize judges, court officials, and candidates for judicial or legal office, but they cannot lie about them. This rule says a lawyer cannot make false statements about a judge's qualifications or honesty if the lawyer knows the statement is false or didn't bother to check whether it was true. Basically, before attacking a judge's character or competence in public, a lawyer needs to have a real basis for what they're saying.

The second part of the rule applies to lawyers who are running for a judicial position themselves. If a lawyer is a candidate for judge, they also have to follow the separate rules that control how judges and judicial candidates are supposed to behave, like the Code of Judicial Conduct or the rules for Magisterial District Judges.

The point of this rule is to protect the public's trust in the court system. Judges and legal officers need to be able to do their jobs without facing false attacks on their character. At the same time, lawyers still have the right to raise honest concerns or criticism when there's a real reason to question a judge's conduct.