the state is still slowly chipping away at the unprecedented number of judicial vacancies a shortage that caused the state's chief justice to take action last month suspending certain trials in about half a dozen counties lawmakers today were in Trenton vetting six more nominees to the courts as senior correspondent Joanna gagas reports they're working against a process that wasn't built to be swift this is both a special and humbling moment one I consider to be the Pinnacle of my career by all accounts it was a productive day in the Senate Judiciary Committee where six nominees for Superior Court judgeships were unanimously approved I will use my personal legal and municipal court experience to serve with Grace Integrity tolerance respect and fairness my courtroom will always be a place where litigants of every kind will feel safe seen and heard but the six nominees represent the snail's pace of judicial nominations that's left New Jersey's court system in shamble last month chief justice Stuart rabner announced a pause on all civil trials in two judicial visionages affecting six counties Hunterdon Somerset Warren Cumberland Gloucester and Salem civil cases like divorce domestic abuse custody and personal injury trials are on hold indefinitely and people's lives are hanging in the balance I've had cases where clients have been evicted because they can't get before a judge to have a trial to to fix the situation in their divorce I've had clients where the parents are involved in a custody dispute and the child starts self-harming because the child's so stressed out and we couldn't get before a judge right now there are 67 Superior Court vacancies but 25 vacancies is the max the court system can handle while still operating efficiently even the Courts open now are completely backed up and used to tell people the entire divorce process from start to finish all the way through a trial that it might take about a year and now I honestly can't give them a definitive answer I mean my guess would be three years by the time this is all said and done the governor's added 11 more nominees to the list many of them people of color and women but even when those nominees are put forward next week it'll bring the total waiting for Senate confirmation to 29 just a drop in the bucket really of the vacancies in the state it's nice that they're putting six through today but when you know that there's 23 in the pipeline six is really an unfortunate number that's because even if all 29 nominees are confirmed there are 23 retirements coming at the end of the judicial term in June Geralyn Lawrence would like the governor to quote take his own advice that he gave out last week regarding the Rutgers stalemate get into a room with the members of the Senate lock the door lose the key and solve this catastrophic situation that we've been talking about now for a very long time when the Chief Justice shuts down a visionage that's an incentive to move judges and sometimes politicians Republican and Democrat need some incentives Senator John bramnik member of the Senate Judiciary Committee thinks they will start to move the needle on more nominees but not fast enough for those waiting for their day in court now in Trenton I'm Joanna Gagis NJ Spotlight news [music]