According to court filings Wednesday, Judge Andrea R. Wood, who is overseeing the two Button home purchase fee cases and the Moar fee case, has recused herself from those cases.
The Chicago-based U.S. District Court judge said in a filing that she recently learned that the spouse of a relative within the third degree of kinship with her is a partner in a law firm that represents a defendant in the lawsuit, which is why she recused herself.
“The relationship with this relative has no bearing on any decision in this case. However, this relationship requires a judicial challenge under the Code of Conduct for United States Judges,” Wood wrote in the motion.
The code of conduct cited by Wood states that “a judge must disqualify himself or herself from any proceeding in which his or her impartiality may reasonably be called into question, including, but not limited to, where the judge knows that the judge, the judge’s spouse, or a person related to either of them within the third degree of kinship, or the spouse of such a person, has an interest that may be materially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”
Moreover, Wood noted that the Code of Conduct Board advises that “in all cases in which a law firm represents a party in court, the firm’s equity partners generally have ‘interests that may be significantly affected by the outcome of the litigation.'”
It is unclear how Wood’s decision will affect the future of the two Baton cases that were scheduled for trial in late 2026 or early 2027. A hearing in the Baton I case scheduled for Thursday has been canceled.
