Syracuse, NY -- The fate of roughly 700 lawsuits and other civil cases in Central New York is up in the air after the court system abruptly announced that two local judges will be let go in January 2021.
Veteran state Supreme Court Justices Anthony Paris, in Onondaga County, and Norman Seiter Jr., in Oswego County, won’t be returning to the bench as planned next year, local Chief Administrative Judge James P. Murphy confirmed to Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard.
Paris and Seiter each have full dockets of civil cases, handling roughly 300 to 350 each, Murphy said.
“It’s very unprecedented,” Murphy said of the cuts. “We’re losing two pillars of our judicial district. I think it came as a great shock to them. That’s not something we would normally do, absent the pandemic.”
The judges are being let go as part of a plan to slash 46 judicial spots statewide. That’ll save the state $55 million over two years, Murphy said.
Each judge makes roughly $200,000 a year. Even so, their departures won’t fill the court system’s $300 million deficit after the state’s cuts due to the budget crisis that began with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Though both judges were elected, the court system had the power to cut them because they are under “senior status,” meaning they are older than the mandatory retirement age of 70. To stay on as judge after that point requires a special court waiver, reissued every two years.
The court system decided to let go nearly all of the judges statewide that had been allowed to stay past age 70. Paris’s 14-year term wasn’t due to end until 2027; Seiter’s term doesn’t end for another decade.
Both judges were working as extra help in the district; once they reached 70, their original seats on the bench had been filled by newcomers.
Still, by their nature, they were some of the most experienced judges on the bench and were both working full-time, Murphy said. Paris has been a judge since 2000; Seiter since 2004.
The judicial cuts come amid a “hard” hiring freeze across the system and the suspension of all non-essential spending, Murphy said. The hope is that other court staff won’t have to be cut, Murphy said.
The vast majority of annual court expenses are salaries; judges obviously make more than other employees.
“It’s very sad news for our district, as well as everybody in the state,” the chief judge added. “It just underscores the seriousness of the budget right now.”
Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070.
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October 02, 2020 at 10:26PM
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