well the state may finally be turning the page on the judicial vacancy crisis as of Monday all trials have resumed Statewide after chief justice Stuart rabner ended the suspension of civil and matrimonial trials in pic County that's been in place since July a series of Court moratoriums have been in place over the last few years due to a shortage of judges on the bench now recent confirmations put the judicial vacancy level at its lowest since prior to the pandemic down to to 39 empty seats from the all-time record high of 78 in May of 2022 but the president of the New Jersey State Bar Association Tim mcgoffin says that doesn't mean the work is over he joins me now Tim McGoughran thanks so much for joining me so does this latest announcement uh from the chief justice mean officially an end to the gridlock that we've been experiencing in our courts well I certainly think it uh means we're we're in the uh last stretches of this um judicial crisis that's been going on for the last three years um progress has been made there's been 24 judges that have been uh confirmed this year um so it's really been a a great start um to getting the judicial vacancies down in the 20s uh which is where uh chief justice rabner believes the number is more manageable right now believe we're still at around 38 vacancies um but there are people in the pipeline now and we're very hopeful that uh there'll be another package of judicial candidates that'll come through soon but certainly for the people in um pic uh that have now got a full compliment or or almost full compliment of Judges uh having the ability to have uh civil and family trials uh re uh you know resurfacing again is certainly a good uh is certainly a good sign yeah I mean what is it meant for these litigants and pic obviously being the last uh to end the moratorium but these are lives and and familiar matters and uh personal you know issues that have been put on hold for quite some time yeah as a family lawyer I'm certainly very sympathetic with that I mean the idea of having some type of a dysfunctional family situation or custodial situation or just having the ability to move on with their lives and having that put on hold when you have some hard decisions that people aren't able to resolve on their own um is certainly um daunting uh for those individuals and people who have serious injuries from uh personal injury and accidents and have medical bills and have other things that need to be paid in their in their own life and expenses to get their life back in order um having that um unjustifiably delayed um was was certainly difficult but we're coming out of it it seemed like though Tim that it really took groups like yours the bar association uh the Chief Justice others to apply the pressure on both the governor's office and the legislature to get this done are you concerned at all that they may take the foot off the gas uh to fill these remaining seats that's always a concern because the reality is that this is something that it's continual people retire all the time there's 400 something judges throughout the state so people retire it's it's something that everybody has to continually work out we have to recruit and find individuals who are qualified to be superior court judges uh the governor's office uh needs to work with the Senate to um find people that are acceptable to everyone and I think the Senate needs to be mindful of the fact that they have a certain obligation um to move um nominees in a timely fashion so um I think you know that that message has been made clear certainly Co didn't help the situation any um but everybody's moving out of it in the right direction I'm confident that by the end of this year beginning of next year that we'll um hopefully be below the level that U the chief um indicates was something that the courts can manage which is 25 to 30 vacancies but everybody's moving in the right direction Tim mcgoffin is the president of New Jersey State Bar Association Tim McGoughran thanks so much thank you