meanwhile New Jersey remains in the midst of a Judicial vacancy crisis top officials this week warned lawmakers it's threatening the Court's ability to function and more trials could be halted Statewide if the lack of Judges doesn't get addressed immediately some attorneys are now taking matters into their own hands filing unprecedented lawsuits to move their cases to counties where trials haven't yet been suspended a senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports even that option now hangs in the balance we want an opportunity to try the case that is something that our clients need Tyler Hall is an attorney who's been waiting several years to try a wrongful death case in court but the judge shortage in New Jersey has intensified so greatly that two judicial visionages covering six counties were recently closed his was one of them so he's suing to move the case to a new Visage we made an argument basically saying that under this rule because we can't get a trial and because there's no hope of a trial anytime in the future that the case should be moved from Somerset County or Huntington County I'm sorry to uh Middlesex County and actually the head judge of the vicinity judge Shanahan who sits in Somerset County heard oral argument on that motion on Friday and we're awaiting the judge's decision State Bar Association president Geralyn Lawrence believes this is a smart move and something we may see more of as vicinity's 13 and 15 remain closed it is a necessary strategy based on the shutdown in visonage 13 and also visnitch 15 and those are official shutdowns there are shutdowns that are unofficial shutdowns um where there are staggering number of vacancies there are currently 58 judicial vacancies across the state 22 more judges will be retiring in just a few weeks and it's likely that more visionages will be shut down she blames the legislative and executive branches it's actually stunning that this is not being met with any sense of urgency it's appalling Glenn Grant who serves as administrative director of the New Jersey courts urged the other two branches of government to work together quickly stressing that in many ways it's already too late victims seeking financial compensation are left in limbo married couples with children who are seeking to work out divorce agreements have their lives put on hold businesses are unable to settle contract disputes we're no longer headed towards a crisis we are in the middle of one Senator Mike Testa who sits on the Senate budget and Judiciary committees took the opportunity to call out his Democratic colleagues the only people that are extremely concerned about filling the judicial vacancies with the lawyers in the vicinity in which they practice senator Paul sarlo chair of funding capable folks out there who want to step up and serve I urge the governor's office to expedite we all could do better there's no doubt about it in a statement the governor's office said since Governor Murphy took office in 2018 116 judges have been nominated and confirmed while 20 additional Superior Court nominees currently await Senate confirmation notably nine of the pending 20 nominations are for the visitages that are currently facing suspensions of civil and matrimonial trials all justifications aside attorneys say it's New Jersey residents who are suffering the most people are looking to trial as a as a means to bring Justice to a family member and then closure for something they that they've gone through now they are they're without that and now they have no hope because there are no plans in place right now to lessen the judicial shortage judge Glenn reminded the legislature that New Jersey has more than 100 000 lawyers about half of whom appear in court on a regular basis so not having an applicant pool is not a viable excuse for the delays that are halting people's lives for NJ Spotlight news I'm Joanna Gagis [Music]