Queens courts lead way in case backlog reduction
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Most recent data shows civil courts in Queens are making noticeable headway lowering the number of active ongoing cases. Photo by Walter Karling
By Noah Powelson
Queens’ Civil and Criminal Courts have proven to be leaders in addressing stubborn backlogged cases, outperforming city and state courthouses in a number of metrics through the first half of the year.
As the court system approaches the halfway point of 2025, data available from the Unified Court System’s Division of Technology & Court Research shows that Queens Civil and Criminal Courts have made noticeable headway in reducing case backlog. Courts across Queens, including Family Court, are seeing an increased rate of dispositions compared to the same time last year.
According to data available from the UCS’ Caseload Trends Dashboard, there have been over 83,000 dispositions across all Queens courts in 2025 so far, a 16 percent increase from the same time in 2024. There are also over 100,000 less pending cases in Queens courts, a 22 percent increase from last year.
Criminal Courts
In Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term, dispositions and pending cases remain roughly where they were last year, but new case filings are down 17 percent. More notable is the number of trials commenced this year compared to last.
By June 2024, judges in Queens Supreme Criminal Court had commenced 57 trials. According to most recent data, they’ve commenced 71 trials this year, a 25 percent increase.
Local criminal courts in Queens have seen a higher rate of new case filings the past six months, a roughly 15 percent increase from 2024 with almost 19,000 filings so far this year. Despite the increase, local Criminal Courts have increased their dispositions rate by 6 percent compared to last year.
Michelle Johnson, the administrative judge of Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term, chalked up the improvement to a team effort.
“This trend is attributable to a full complement of hard working and dedicated judges, court attorneys, and non-judicial staff proactively implementing the initiatives promoted by Chief Judge Wilson and Chief Administrative Judge Zayas to facilitate more efficient resolution of cases pending in the court,” Johnson said in a statement to the Eagle.
“This level of productivity takes a village,” Johnson added.
Johnson, who was appointed the administrative Judge for Queens Supreme, Criminal Term in October 2024, said her team of judges and court attorneys are proactively engaged in off-calendar case conferencing with all parties at all stages of a case, attempting to resolve them in the most efficient ways possible.
Johnson also gave credit to the High Inventory Defense Counsel Initiative, which allows all New York City counties to confer and schedule the trials of defense attorneys with multiple cases pending citywide, mitigating the effect conflicting engagements have on reaching dispositions.
What’s more, the Supreme Court under Johnson is outpacing the rate of newly commenced trials compared to the rest of the city and state. Across New York, Supreme Criminal Courts have started 3 percent more trials compared to last year. In the five boroughs, 15 percent more trials have been commenced.
But in Queens, the Supreme Court, Criminal Term has started 25 percent more trials compared to the same time last year
Johnson said she couldn’t speak for other boroughs, but attributed Queens’ progress to the strong cooperation between her team and recently elevated judges.
“I wish I could say that statistics alone tell the whole story, but the truth is there has been a complete turn-over in the administration at the Criminal Term,” Johnson said. “Notably, there has been a significant turn over in judges elected and/or elevated to the Criminal Term in the last two years, with at least eight new judges assigned to the Supreme Court.”
Civil Courts
Queens Local Civil courts have achieved over 36,000 dispositions so far in 2025, a roughly 37 percent increase from the same time last year. Queens Supreme Civil court is also faring well, seeing a 12 percent increase in dispositions and a 31 percent increase in trials commenced compared to the same time last year.
Of the data available, the only Queens court showing a decline in dispositions is the Surrogate Court. However, Surrogate Court has also seen a noticeable decrease in new case filings and overall pending cases, 15 percent and 20 percent respectively.
New case filings overall are down, with the exception of Queens Local Criminal and Local Civil Courts, which have seen a roughly 15 percent and 6 percent increase respectively.
Queens Local Civil Courts are also outperforming the city and state in addressing case backlog, a notable feat considering courts across the state have made great strides.
Across all courts in New York state, dispositions in Local Civil courts are up 21 percent, and pending cases are down 13 percent. In New York City pending local civil cases are down 15 percent and dispositions up 27 percent. Meanwhile in the World’s Borough, pending local civil cases are down 30 percent and dispositions up 37 percent.
The numbers are similar for Queens Supreme Court, Civil Term. In New York state, Supreme Civil Court dispositions are up 2 percent from last year, trials commenced are up 15 percent but pending cases are also up 2 percent. In NYC, Supreme Court Civil court dispositions are up 1 percent, trials commenced are up 23 percent while pending cases increased by 2 percent.
In Queens, Supreme Court Civil Court dispositions are up 12 percent and the court has already had over 100 more trials commenced compared to the same point last year, a roughly 31 percent increase.
“As administrative judge of the Queens Supreme Court, Civil Term, I am pleased to report that, as of June 2025, we have seen a significant increase in both case dispositions and trials commenced compared to the same period last year,” Justice Marguerite Grays, administrative judge of the Queens Supreme Court, Civil term, said in a statement. “This upward trend is a testament to the unwavering commitment of our judges and court personnel, who continue to work diligently to improve case management and move matters forward competently and efficiently. It also reflects the effectiveness of our ongoing initiatives to reduce backlog, streamline operations, and expand access to justice for all.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, New York’s court systems have seen a flood of case backlogs that the state has struggled to mitigate. In 2019 before the pandemic, New York state had over 475,000 pending cases. By the end of 2024, that number increased to over 583,000.
To address the case backlog, court leaders and legislators have called for increased funding to hire more judges, attorneys and court staff.
At the end of 2024, Chief Judge Rowan Wilson and Chief Administrative Judge Joseph Zayas proposed a $3 billion budget for the court system in Fiscal Year 2026, a 9.9 percent increase from last year’s request.
For Fiscal Year 2025, Zayas and Wilson called for a $2.7 billion budget, a 5 percent increase from the year prior.
One of the biggest expenses the courts have this year is paying the salaries of 43 new judges that were added to the court system as a result of two different laws that were passed over the past two years.
The money also covers the cost of creating 75 new court attorney positions, 90 trial court operations positions, 10 support magistrate positions and 22 Appellate Department positions
