New Jersey Caught in
Divorce Court Crisis
New Jersey residents needing a divorce trial could wait for several years.
Mediating your divorce makes sense now more than ever.
Why?
- There are 69 judicial vacancies statewide. Let's add that to the Covid-19 backlog from which the courts haven't recovered, and we have a clogged court calendar.
- Six counties in NJ have officially halted hearings for current civil and matrimonial matters - and those are the cases in the court system already! They are Hunterdon, Somerset, Cumberland, Gloucester, Warren, Salem.
- You're not in clear if you park your car elsewhere. Unofficially, Hudson County, which is densely populated, has clamped down on cases until mid-2024. I read that in Passaic County, a couple has been waiting for over a year for their first court appearance after filing their initial documents. A friend of mine in Union County waited 19 months for her divorce to be finalized.
A NJ attorney stated, “Under the ‘best practices’ court management guidelines that the New Jersey judiciary adopted in 2000, the goal was to finalize a divorce within a year.”
“That was pre-pandemic. The pandemic was one setback, and the lack of judicial resources is another setback,” she said. “Currently … it could be that if you need a [divorce] trial, you could wait for several years,” she said.
Several years?
Now is the time to choose mediation and be confidant that it can save you time, sanity, and your cash. But it goes deeper, mediating can set you on the path to positive, or at least tolerable, co-parenting. Actions and words matter: Your Kids are Watching.
To learn more about mediation, generally check out this recent Forbes article on Divorce Mediation:
Divorce Mediation: Definition, Pros & Cons (2023)
Link to the NJ Court's official press release:
https://lnkd.in/eaGJPDdi
