Echoing the message it brought to the statehouse earlier this month, the Judiciary set out the dire straits of its staffing deficits at the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee hearings last week.
Outlining the strategies of the Judiciary to maintain operations during the pandemic, implement innovative pilot programs, and highlight diversity initiatives, Administrative Director of the Courts Judge Glenn A. Grant delivered a litany of statistics reflecting increased pending case types at sometimes triple the amounts of those pre-pandemic.
“To resolve these cases, quite bluntly, we need more judges,” said Grant.
As of April 1, there are 75 vacancies on the bench with 22 more anticipated by the end of 2022, said Grant to the committee last week. Grant magnified earlier warnings by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner last year, who telegraphed with respect to increased vacancies that even if the governor appoints 30 new judges by the end of this year, New Jersey will still have 67 vacancies at the beginning of 2023. This would still reflect a “structural deficit of judges.”
Amid questioning from the committee, Grant explained the strategies in place to address the most urgent issues in court—prioritizing criminal cases and devoting substantial resources to landlord-tenant conferences and hearings, where the vast majority of the litigants are unrepresented. Flanked by assignment judges who testified regarding their own experiences, they all agreed that even with these strategies in place, people and businesses seeking relief in the courts are suffering.
“We’re like an emergency room in triage,” said Assignment Judge Stuart A. Minkowitz, who oversees Morris and Sussex counties. He described how cases have to be “back-burnered” in favor of more urgent cases involving domestic violence, children, criminals and landlord-tenant matters.
Committee Chair Sen. Paul Sarlo commented that there are three branches of government, pointing out that the Legislature is not wholly to blame for these vacancies. Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz and Sen. Mike Testa echoed that sentiment. Ruiz urged consideration of appointments reflecting diversity in gender and ethnicity and also taking into account the nominee’s understanding of the demographic and geographic makeup of the vicinage. Testa was more direct, pointing out that there are many nominees at the ready who have gone through the New Jersey State Bar Association’s (NJSBA) Judicial and Prosecutorial Appointments Committee and calling the high number of vacancies “absolutely unacceptable.”
“I don’t believe that it’s through any fault of this branch of government,” said Testa, with respect to judicial vacancies. “This is not a bipartisan issue, but a nonpartisan issue.”
The NJSBA has long urged both the Legislature and the governor to work diligently to ensure well-qualified candidates are nominated to the bench.
“With historic numbers of vacancies throughout the court system, many of which have been pending for several years, there are too few judges serving the bench,” NJSBA President Domenick Carmagnola has said in a statement. “Coupled with the impact of the pandemic, the vacancies have resulted in staggering backlogs and too many people waiting for justice.”
Judicial vacancies will be a topic covered at the NJSBA Annual Meeting and Convention later this month in Atlantic City. Both Testa and Ruiz will be on the Inside Trenton panel, which NJSBA First Vice President Timothy McGoughran will moderate. For more information on attending this program and the Annual Meeting, go to njsba.com.
This is a status report provided by the New Jersey State Bar Association on recently passed and pending legislation, regulations, gubernatorial nominations and/or appointments of interest to lawyers, as well as the involvement of the NJSBA as amicus in appellate court matters. To learn more, visit njsba.com.