Getting a Judge Assigned to Your Case (Supreme and County Court RJI)

Supreme Court cases are not assigned to a Judge until one of the parties files a Request for Judicial Intervention (RJI) form and pays the filing fee. (There is no RJI fee for a name change or an Extreme Risk Protection Order). An RJI needs to be filed the first time one side needs a Judge to do something in the case, like decide a motion or order to show cause, or hold a conference, or trial. Sometimes, the RJI is filed right away in a case, like in special proceeding cases which are quicker, or when a party wants to make a motion to dismiss the case. Sometimes an RJI is not filed for years in a case. A case will never get a trial date if an RJI is never filed.

 

Recusal

When the RJI is filed, your case is assigned randomly to a Judge who will decide everything in your case until it is over. If the Judge thinks that he or she can’t be fair in your case, he or she may refuse the case and have it assigned to another judge. This is called recusal. A Judge may decide to recuse himself if he is related to one of the parties. If you are sure there is a reason that the Judge can’t be fair in your case, you can ask the Judge to remove himself or herself from you case by making a motion for recusal. Remember, the Judge can deny your motion and keep the case if he or she believes there is no reason to reassign the case.

 

RJI Forms

There is a general RJI form for all Supreme and County Court cases. There is an extra form to file if you have a commercial, foreclosure or divorce case. There is also an extra form, called the General Addendum, if you have a lot of parties in your case, or a lot of other cases that are connected to yours. There is a different RJI form for an uncontested divorce.

Find the RJI forms you need.

Fill out and sign the form. Make copies for yourself and all the parties. A copy must be served on the other side with any court papers that the RJI concerns, like motion papers. The RJI must be paid for at the cashier in the County Clerk’s office. You will get a receipt for the RJI. The receipt and the original and a copy of the RJI can now be filed.