America’s Sixth Amendment requires that the accused “shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial”. Lately, there is nothing speedy about trials
But a lack of judges—and, in many other states, a shortage of other staff needed to keep courts going—are clogging up the system. Tim McGoughran, head of New Jersey’s bar association, says that, pre-pandemic, most divorce cases going to trial did so within a year. Now some are entering their third or fourth year. For the past three years, the court system has operated with an average of more than 60 judicial vacancies.
About half of America’s states appoint their judges, and half elect them. Vacancies tend to be low in election states. New Jersey is not one of them: the governor nominates judges and the state Senate confirms the nominees. Phil Murphy, the governor, is not making enough nominations and the state Senate is not confirming the nominees it does have fast enough.
“It is a cascading problem,” says Danielle Hirsch of the National Centre for State Courts . New Jersey is not the only state that is feeling the pinch. Maine also has a shortage. Maine’s chief justice recently said that she met a judge who was discouraged “because she cannot make headway regardless of how many cases she jams into dockets or how late she works.” Poor pay plays a role in recruitment and retention: Maine’s judges are among the lowest-paid in the country.
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