Judicial confirmations must continue, top court official says

Lawmakers must continue to nominate and confirm new judges as New Jersey nears the end of its judicial vacancy crisis, the Judiciary’s chief administrator told an Assembly panel Monday.

Judge Glenn Grant, the acting administrative director of the courts, told the Assembly Budget Committee that failing to add more jurists to the bench would risk derailing the Judiciary’s plan to bring its case backlog down to prepandemic levels.

Judges are still in short supply in Passaic County — where civil and divorce proceedings resumed last week after being canceled for nine months because of a lack of judges — and some counties are still at risk of suspending certain types of trials, Grant said.

“This is not a point-in-time kind of completion project. You’ve got to have ongoing, consistent introduction of new candidates, review and evaluation by the governor’s office, and then presented to the Senate,” he said. “As long as that kind of dedicated consistency is happening, we believe confidently that we’ll be able to have judges across our system.

This is the fourth year in a row that Grant has told lawmakers the state needs more judges.

Lawmakers have confirmed 24 new Superior Court judges since January, nudging judicial vacancies down to 39, from 58 at the start of the year. Twelve judges are expected to retire by year’s end.

Court officials have said the Judiciary can operate sustainably if vacancies were reduced to a maximum of 30.

Grant’s comments may pour cold water on lawmakers’ recent celebrations over the purported end of the vacancy crisis. Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) declared the crisis over in March after lawmakers confirmed 12 judges and vacancies were down to 38.

In New Jersey, the governor nominates would-be judges, and the Senate confirms them to an initial seven-year term. Judges can serve until the mandatory retirement age of 70.

While Grant praised lawmakers for judicial confirmations over the last 18 months, he warned that counties like Passaic would need more judges to forestall further trial suspensions.

“I don’t want to declare a victory in Passaic County,” he said. “They still have significant vacancies there, but they have enough now to keep civil and matrimonial trials starting.”

Court officials last month detailed a plan to reduce case backlogs to prepandemic levels by July 2027, an undertaking that would require the Judiciary to move along more than 42,000 backlogged cases.

More than 19,000 of those cases involve criminal matters, domestic violence, or family crisis petitions, three areas the courts have marked with the strictest backlog standards.

The courts mark a case as backlogged if it has been in stasis for a period of time set by the Judiciary based on the type of case. That period ranges from one month for domestic violence and family crisis matters to two years for certain civil cases.

Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz (R-Morris) asked Grant whether raising the judicial retirement age would help the Judiciary close its backlog or keep the bench staffed.

“We have two people running for president who are well over 70,” Muñoz said.

Grant, a 72-year-old jurist who can remain in his role under legislation Gov. Phil Murphy signed in 2021, did not directly answer the question, saying only that more judges are the better fix.

“If we have a consistent infusion of new judges, that is the best solution for any backlog strategy,” he said.

There were some signs during Monday’s hearing that legislators may consider increasing pay for jurors.

Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Mercer) asked how much New Jersey should pay its citizens for that civic duty. At present, trial jurors receive $5 daily for the first three days of a trial and $40 daily thereafter. Grand jurors are paid $5 per day.

“I would defer to the Legislature on the actual number, but we know that $5, clearly, is not a good number,” Grant said.