NJ judge shortage causing backlog from county to state Supreme Court – NorthJersey.com

Mwanga Mtengule and his wife, Nicole Cuttino, separated in 2017.

He first filed for divorce in 2019.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the case was assigned to a new judge.

Three years and more than $100,000 later, he and his wife, both lawyers, now represent themselves because it’s too costly to wait.

Mtengule, of Harrison, said that the trial, which is set to take place in Hudson County, has been delayed multiple times. They now have a date set for this fall.

“Theoretically it’s supposed to be in September but that is tentative date. The judge has even said ‘I don’t know if that’s going to happen,’ ” Mtengule said.

He said it has gotten to the point where even the newly appointed judge told him to “feel free to complain about this situation.”

Mtengule is among the thousands of people caught in the fallout of a “catastrophic” shortage of judges that’s caused a backlog on every level, from county courts to the state Supreme Court. The pandemic made it even worse because trials were suspended.

Jeralyn Lawrence, president of the state’s bar association, said the impact was affecting everyday lives. She noted that some people who were married for a year or two now wait three or four years to get divorced. In other cases, families have not settled custody agreements. And she said one woman who was terminally ill might die before having her divorce finalized, putting her assets in limbo. The woman was alive as of last week.

Lawyers and judges have warned state leaders for months that judicial vacancies are at crisis levels and disrupting the lives of everyday New Jerseyans. Chief Justice Stuart Rabner said in May that to “address that backlog and give people their day in court” that state needs judges.

“In too many areas today, we are simply unable to do that because of the sustained and growing number of judicial vacancies in the Superior Court,” he said. “We have averaged 50 or more vacancies each month. That number should be no higher than 25 or 30 for the Judiciary to be able to best serve the public.”

There were 62 judicial vacancies in the Superior Court and the Appellate Division as of July 1, according to the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts.

And this problem isn’t new. Rabner said in May that the courts have been working at a deficit for two and a half years. At the end of 2021, New Jersey had a backlog of 93,624 cases, a 17% increase over 2020, according to the courts.

Retirements, both voluntary and mandatory due to age, left three seats open on the state Supreme Court and vacancies abound in the lower courts as well. The retirement last week of Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin, who turned the mandatory retirement age of 70, served as the latest reminder that judges are in short supply in New Jersey, even on its highest court.

The need to fill these vacancies is so drastic that Senate President Nick Scutari — who for years led the Senate Judiciary Committee — has already promised a summer voting session dedicated to fill the gaps.

“I don’t know if there will be any Supreme Court appointments but we’re going to come back in a few weeks to address the vacancies on all levels of the courts,” he said.

Gov. Phil Murphy said he shares Rabner’s concern and that “we need to fill these vacancies up”

According to the Governor’s Office, the Senate has confirmed 87 of his Superior Court judge nominations since 2018. This year, Murphy has nominated 35 Superior Court judges; 25 have been confirmed and there are 10 awaiting confirmation by the Senate. The Senate has confirmed a total of 32 Superior Court judges this year, 25 from 2022 and seven that were nominated in 2021.

In the highest courts

Supreme Court Justices Faustino J. Fernandez-Vina and Albin retired at the mandatory age of 70 and Jaynee LaVecchia retired voluntarily last year at the age of 66.

Murphy’s choice to replace LaVecchia, Rachel Wainer Apter, has been held up for nearly a year because of senatorial courtesy invoked by state Sen. Holly Schepisi, R-Bergen. The unwritten rule, designed as a check on power, allows senators to block judicial nominees from their home county.

That privilege, combined with the research and vetting of judges in general, makes it difficult to move swiftly to get judges on the bench, Murphy officials said earlier this year. But the governor has also not named Supreme Court replacements for Fernandez-Vina and Albin.

On the local level

Lawrence, of the bar association, said there are 10 county courthouses where family law trials, including divorce and custody hearings, aren’t being scheduled and another four where divorce proceedings are scheduled for months away.

“For all intents and purposes 14 of our 21 county courthouses are closed to parties wanting to get a divorce or they were divorced and want to get post-judgment related issues, such as custody, not receiving support,” she said.

And there are other real life consequences, she said.

“Parents are home stuck living together and not liking each other very much and at war and the children are living in a toxic situation of their parents stuck living together not being able to move forward,” Lawrence said.

Delays in divorce and custody agreements also weigh on the mental health of the families involved, she said.

Families that need to relocate out of state may need approval of a custody agreement, and they can’t get into court to settle that, she said.

She also noted the significant financial consequences. Because of the delays, people are now paying higher premiums when trying to start their new lives in the aftermath of a divorce.

Lawrence said that because the courts are “so overworked and understaffed” they’re not processing qualified domestic relations orders, or orders to divide things like pensions and 401(k)s, in a timely manner.

With fewer judges to oversee cases, lawsuits stack up if they aren’t resolved and await trial. Suspending jury trials during the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress even more, while new cases added up.

State and federal courts across the country also have large backlogs due to the pandemic. In New Jersey’s federal court system, there were 62,799 cases pending at the end of September, a 35% increase over the year before, according the United States court system.

Essex County faces a backlog substantially higher than the rest of the state with a backlog of more than 26,000 cases as of May, according to the court’s dashboard.

The dashboard also shows that almost half of the backlogged cases — 35,261 — were concentrated in the “special civil” unit, which deals with cases such as unpaid bills, small claims and landlord-tenant disputes.

Lawrence said that having vacancies topping 60 is “catastrophic” and that the state is in “uncharted territory.”

“We don’t care why there are these vacancies anymore,” she said. “Just figure it out. The Legislature and governor have to spend the time and treat this as their top priority and fill these vacancies. Finger pointing and blame as to why it’s happening don’t matter anymore.”