Hudson Vicinage --Civil Division

Civil Division

The Civil Division mainly handles tort and contract cases of a monetary value of $15,000 or more. Approximately 7,000 complaints are filed in the Civil Division annually.

The main offices for the division are located at 583 Newark Avenue, in the Brennan Courthouse. There are presently ten judges assigned to the Civil Division, six of them are located in the Brennan Courthouse and four are in the Administration Building. The Honorable Peter F. Bariso, Jr. is the Presiding Judge and is located in the Brennan Courthouse.

Antoinette Outwater, Civil Division Manager, oversees the operations of the division along with the Presiding Judge. Susan Statile is the Assistant Civil Division Manager.

There are three main offices in the Civil Division they are the:

1. Civil Records Room

Civil Law Division Teams 1 & 2 are situated in the Civil Records Room located on the 1st floor of the Brennan Courthouse. The Team Leaders responsible for them are Lorraine (Lee) Woloszyn, Team 1 and Ida Vargas, Team 2. This office also maintains all of the Division's files. Since civil records are open to the public, anyone interested in reviewing a file or obtaining a copy of a document may come to the Civil Records Room. For more information call the Customer Service Desk at 201-217-5162.

2. Case Management Office

Teams 3 and 4, headed up by Team Leaders Madeline Fay-Davis and Lavinia Mampara respectively, are located in the Case Management Office on the 3rd floor of the Brennan Courthouse.

Note: Requests for Transcripts are sent directly to the Trial Court Administrator's Office. They in turn forward them on to the appropriate team. For more information call the TCA's office at 201-217-5293.

3. Arbitration Office

The arbitration program is coordinated and supervised by Cheryl D'Anna, Arbitration Administrator. All auto negligence, personal injury and contract cases are scheduled for arbitration. Approximately 50% of the cases scheduled for arbitration are disposed of through the program. This avoids the need for a long costly trial. The unit is located on the 3rd floor of the Brennan Courthouse. For more information call 201-795-6372.

The Civil Division is constantly exploring new types of complimentary dispute resolution programs that may help bring cases to a more expeditious and cost effective resolution. The programs that are currently used in Hudson County are mandatory non-binding arbitration, voluntary binding arbitration, court-annexed mediation, presumptive mediation and settlement conferences.