New York State Judicial Hearing Officers
Posted on Mar 28, 2011 12:53pm PDT
Another casualty of the financial crisis in New York State is the elimination, or at least the suspension, of the use of Judicial Hearing Officers in divorce cases in the New York State Supreme Court. As of April 1, 2011(the beginning of the New York State fiscal year) there will no longer be funds budgeted for Judicial Hearing Officers to preside over divorce actions.
Judicial Hearing Officers (JHO's) have provided an essential service to parties litigating their divorces, and to the judges and the court systems throughout New York State inundated with the high volume of divorces. The JHO's have provided an invaluable service to the court system and to the litigant's embroiled in litigating divorces by keeping the matrimonial cases moving by lessening the load on the presiding judges in the Supreme Courts in the counties of New York.
The volume of divorce cases has become so great that cases often linger on the court calendars, not necessarily at the fault of the litigants, or of the court itself, but simply by virtue of the enormous traffic in the matrimonial courts system.
The loss of JHO's to budget cuts is likely to sacrifice efficiency and increase the time it takes to litigate divorces in New York State.