The Senate Judiciary Committee Is expected to approve three new judges today, reducing the total number of vacancies from 62 to 59, but anticipated retirements – seven before the Senate recesses at the end of June – means that judges are leaving at a faster rate than they’re getting confirmed.
The three judicial candidates up today – Tosca Blandford Bynoe, Tariq Chaudhri, and Linda Galella – could fill gaps in South Jersey, where the shortage of judges is so severe that Chief Justice Stuart Rabner halted civil trials and divorce cases in Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties in February.
Gov. Phil Murphy sent nine new names to the Senate in May, which brings the total number of judicial candidates waiting on Senate confirmation to 28, including Blandford Bynoe, Chaudhri, and Galella.
Blandford Bynoe and Galella would reduce the number of vacancies in Gloucester from six to four, and Chaudhri could take the Cumberland County judicial vacancies from three to two – possibly enough for Rabner to restore civil trial and divorces in South Jersey. A vicinage in the north that includes Hunterdon, Salem, and Somerset is still awaiting more judges.
The Senate has a session scheduled for Monday that could put Blandford Bynoe, Chaudhri and Galella on the bench by next week.
Rabner is likely to address judicial shortages in his State of the Judiciary address on Friday. Glen Grant, the administrative director of the courts, did that when he appeared before a legislative budget committee in April.
Fourteen sitting judges will also be considered for tenured seats on the Superior Court.
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