CLE talks court processes resuming

Supervising Judge Tracy Catapano-Fox led Thursday’s CLE on the state of Queens Civil Court proceedings.

Photo via Zoom

By Rachel Vick

Nearly 50 attorneys and judges attended a meeting Thursday on the future of Queens Civil Court proceedings, with insight from Supervising Judge Tracy Catapano-Fox.

The session, sponsored by National Arbitration and Mediation, also served as a 1-credit continuing legal education course.

Catapano-Fox praised court clerks and other personnel for enabling the court system to continue functioning even during a pandemic. 

“Since [March 16], we’ve really made a conscious effort to have all the court operations that we could up and running,” Catapano-Fox said.

Queens Civil Court maintained a virtual calendar to ensure all personnel and litigants remained in the loop, according to Catapano-Fox. 

“Attorneys started reaching out to me right away and I started reaching out to them because we were fearful about what was going to happen and how to keep everybody connected,” she said.

Judges have managed to get up to speed on all their backlogged cases, she said. They are so caught up, in fact, that cases that can’t be resolved pretrial have begun to pile up. 

In July, Queens County was the first jurisdiction in the city to administer a virtual bench trial, but the chances of jury trials taking place before 2021 are unlikely, Catapano-Fox said. Chief Clerk Audrey Pheffer has not received any official requests to put out a call for jurors, she added.

Catapano-Fox will be presiding over Queens’ first two Summary Bench trials next month. 

She also reiterated the safety measures and restrictions in place for individuals physically entering the courthouses, including temperature checks, efficient movement to designated parts and locations, and restricting access for people who must quarantine.

“We are committed to working as hard as we can to keep the courts moving and do justice for everyone,” she said.