Courts face clerk shortage

Queens is down 15 court clerks when compared to March of last year. Eagle file photo by David Brand

By Jacob Kaye

Courts citywide are experiencing a shortage of clerks.

Facing budget shortfalls, a hiring freeze and semi-closed courts last year, the number of court clerks in New York City has seen a decrease.

“[The number of clerks has] been declining over the years,” said a clerk in Queens Supreme who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal. “I understand we've had budgetary problems and stuff, but when [the OCA] loses people through attrition, they're not replacing them.”

In the past two months, as the courts have worked toward a full reopening, judges who were cut during the pandemic have been invited back to serve on the bench. But clerks have been left wondering when their ranks will be replenished.

As of June, there were 11 percent fewer clerks in New York City than there were in March 2020, according to the Office of Court Administration.

In Queens courts including Queens Supreme, Family, Criminal, Civil, Queens County Clerk and Surrogates courts, there are currently 265 clerks, 15 fewer than there were last March.

In Queens Supreme Court, eight of 30 justices are currently without an assigned clerk. But according to some clerks who are still employed, that’s only part of the issue.

“Part clerks are only a small part of the clerks to me because there are hundreds of other clerks in the building,” the clerk said. “We handle everything from the inception of the case, right through to when a judgment is entered, and all the motions, and so you have a back office, people that are doing all that. So now the workload on those people has doubled.”

Having a permanently assigned clerk makes for a more efficient courtroom, according to Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Esposito.

“If you have a clerk who knows your part and knows you, it just makes for a seamless operation,” Esposito said. “The clerk knows how you function, the clerk knows what you like and knows what you need.”

Esposito, who recently finished his first jury trial since being recertified to the bench earlier this year, added that while he doesn’t have a permanent clerk, every clerk in the courts is perfectly qualified to make sure trials run smoothly.

“Clerks are very experienced,” he said. “If you have a clerk, even if it's not the same clerk all the time, they know what they're doing.”

But the shortage has nonetheless done little to help the backlog of cases, which has grown significantly during the pandemic.

“No matter how many cases a judge tries to do, if the clerks are not getting all the cases ready, it gets backed up,” the clerk said. “People have been waiting three, four years to get their case to trial. And that’s guardianship matters and all these things, where there's a tremendous amount of paperwork that goes along with it. And everybody's suffering.”

Last year, a hiring and promotional freeze throughout the courts was put in place. For clerks who did well on the promotional exam and were put on the promotion list, the pandemic provided a big blow.

“The test that you take is not a joke,” the clerk said. “People spend hundreds and hundreds of hours studying for this and they’re languishing on the list. [OCA has] twice frozen the list in the past three tests because there’s budgetary problems and then the pandemic, which is understandable, but then you never get it back.”

To add to the current shortage of clerks is the looming retirement of many clerks who were hired during a boom time for the courts in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“30 years ago was like the greatest hiring that they did in the court system and so all those people are coming of age right now,” the clerk said. “We have five or six clerks in my building that are retiring, or retired in the last month or so and nobody's been hired to replace them.”

The OCA was able to fill a number of clerk positions pre-pandemic, according to a spokesperson for the agency.

Additionally, the OCA has plans for filling more positions in the near future.

“We are also in the process of filling various clerk positions in NYC now,” the spokesperson said. “Currently, we’ve released approximately 35 clerk positions in NYC with more to come in the coming weeks.”