More Action on Judicial Appointments Required

We were pleased to see the New Jersey Senate unanimously confirm four new judges for our Superior Court last week and to hear that four more appointments are anticipated before the end of the year. But as gratifying as that action is, it is a drop in the bucket of solving the crisis of staffing in the court.

We have written more than once about the emergency of vacancies in our Superior Court. The New Jersey State Bar Association has pleaded for action. Family law practitioners report extraordinary delays in matters of upmost importance, including child custody and domestic violence. The backlog of cases resulting from the pandemic only exacerbates the problem, causing unconscionable delays in access to our courts for family, civil and criminal litigants alike. Even with the new and promised appointments, judicial vacancies hover around 60 of 463 Superior Court posts.

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