Report a Crime

Nobody is above the law. If you witness something that you believe is a criminal act, you have an ethical duty to report it.

Reporting a crime is remarkably similar to reporting an attorney's unethical behavior, or reporting a judge's disregard for judicial duties. The main difference is that while the Rules of Professional Conduct ("RPC") apply only to attorneys and the Canons of Judicial Conduct ("CJC") apply only to judges, crimes apply to everyone.

There are state-level crimes and federal-level crimes. Neither is more severe than the other; it's simply a matter of which legislature codified the offensive behavior, and how you report it, and to whom.

Standard	Who	Reporting Mechanism	Report To
Rules of Professional Conduct (ethics rules)	attorneys	bar grievance	varies by state; usually a dedicated review board or the state Supreme Court
Canons of Judicial Conduct (ethics rules)	judges	misconduct complaint	varies by state; usually a dedicated review board or the state Supreme Court
State-defined crimes (state's penal code)	anyone	criminal complaint	state magistrate
Federally-defined crimes (Title 18 US Code)	anyone	criminal complaint	federal magistrate