1. (1) Commission shall mean the Ethics Commission for the Unified Court System.
2. (2) Employee shall mean a State-paid judge, justice, officer or employee of the Unified Court System.
3. (3) File shall mean to make delivery to the offices of the commission personally, electronically or by mail. The filing date shall be the date the document filed is received in the offices of the commission.
4. (4) Financial disclosure statement shall mean the annual statement approved by the Chief Judge pursuant to subdivision 4 of section 211 of the Judiciary Law.
5. (5) Job title shall mean the title of the position to which an employee has been elected or appointed.

6. (6) Rule shall mean Part 40 of the Rules of the Chief Judge of the State of New York (22 NYCRR).

   (b) Scope.

7. (1) Pursuant to section 40.1(i)(3) of the rule, the commission shall permit an employee who is required to file a financial disclosure statement to request an additional period of time within which to file such statement. This request will be granted if the commission finds that there is justifiable cause for the extension or that the timely filing of the statement would cause undue hardship.

8. (2) Pursuant to section 40.2(a)(2)(i) of the rule, the commission shall allow an employee who has timely filed an application for automatic extension with the Internal Revenue Service to file a supplementary statement of financial disclosure.

   (c) Procedure for requesting an extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement.

9. (1) An employee may request an extension of time to file his or her statement by filing a request with the commission on or before the date that his or her annual statement of financial disclosure is due.

10. (2) The request for the extension can be made by written application mailed to the Ethics Commission, telephone or email, and shall include:

    1. (a) if the request is made by written application mailed to the Ethics Commission, the name, home address, work address, work telephone number, and job title of the employee requesting the extension;
    2. (b) if the request is made by telephone or email, the name, work telephone number and job title of the employee requesting the extension;
    3. (ii) a statement in support of the employee's claim that an extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement is necessary due to justifiable cause or undue hardship, giving specific reasons and justifications therefor. Documentation supporting this statement may be annexed to the request, if the request is made by letter or email;
    4. (iii) the date certain by which the employee will file his or her financial disclosure statement.

    (i)

11. (3) The request for an extension must be signed by the employee requesting the extension, if the request is made by written application.

    (d) Commission action.

12. (1) Upon receipt of a request for extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement, the commission shall review the material filed to determine if there has been a showing of justifiable cause or undue hardship.
13. (2) If the commission determines that additional information would be useful, it may request such information from the employee requesting the extension. The commission, in its discretion, may request a meeting with the employee to discuss the extension request.
14. (3) Unless the commission decides that there is justifiable cause for an extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement, or that timely filing of such statement would cause undue hardship, the commission shall deny the request for an extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement.
15. (4) The commission shall give notice of its decision to the employee requesting an extension of time to file in the same format in which the request was received. If the extension is granted, the decision shall include the date certain on or before which the employee's financial disclosure statement must be filed.
16. (5) Vacation periods, and the ordinary and necessary tasks, routines, and obligations of an employee's personal and work life shall not constitute undue hardship or justifiable cause for an extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement.

17. (6) No further extension of time to file a financial disclosure statement shall be granted beyond 60 days of the original due date, unless:

    1. (i) the filer is currently on leave and will not return to his or her office within that 60 days. If so, the time to file may be extended for no more than four weeks from the date that the filer returns to his or her office; or
    2. (ii) the filer has asked 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 that the filer requests the extension; or

    3. (iii) the filer has 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.

       (e) Supplementary financial disclosure statements.

18. (1) An employee who timely filed with the Internal Revenue Service an application for automatic extension of time in which to file his or her income tax return for the immediately preceding calendar or fiscal year is required to file a financial disclosure statement:

    1. (i) on or before May 15th of the year that filing is required, if he or she is employed by the Unified Court System on January 1st, or commences employment from January 2nd through April 15th, of that year; or
    2. (ii) 30 days from the date that the employee commences employment (which includes a change to a new job title that requires him or her to file) if he or she commences employment with the Unified Court System from April 16th through December 31st of the year that filing is required. The employee may, however, indicate on the timely filed financial disclosure statement that information regarding a particular item of disclosure is lacking and will be supplied in a supplementary statement of financial disclosure to be filed on or before the seventh day after the expiration of the period of such automatic extension of time within which to file such tax return.

19. (2) The employee must submit a written statement with the timely filed financial disclosure statement. This written statement shall include:

    1. (i) the name, home address, work address, work telephone number and job title of the employee;
    2. (ii) a copy of the application filed with the Internal Revenue Service for an automatic extension of time in which to file the employee's individual income tax return for the immediately preceding calendar or fiscal year;
    3. (iii) a description of the nature of the information which cannot be timely provided on the financial disclosure statement, including the question number(s) where the information would otherwise be reported; and
    4. (iv) the date that the employee's automatic extension expires.
20. (3) Failure to file a supplementary financial disclosure statement, or the filing of an incomplete or deficient supplementary financial disclosure statement, shall be subject to the notice and penalty provisions of the rule as if the supplementary statement were an annual statement of financial disclosure.

(a) Definitions.