Over the past several years, there has been increased need to defend members of the judiciary against baseless ad hominem attacks, often leveled for nothing more than judges and justices simply doing their jobs.

While you might think these incendiary comments and personal criticisms are limited to disgruntled litigants who swell with emotion on a personal matter, sadly, all too often, I see it from our fellow attorneys and officers of the courts as well as from those in the senior levels of our government.

It is important that we each take a moment to ensure we represent the “respectfully” with which we sign our letters and briefs to courts. While electronic signatures and e-courts can allow one to lose touch with the “effect of signing” admonition in Rule 1:4-8(a), we must be continually sobered by that requirement and remain vigilant to allow it to give us pause and reflect on our pleadings before they are submitted, and on our extra-judicial statements before they are uttered.