NJ's longest-serving family law judge steps down after two decades on the bench
Joseph P. SmithBRIDGETON – A few divorces and seven or eight adoptions were on the docket for N.J. Superior Court Presiding Judge Harold U. Johnson on Tuesday, not an unusual day — except that it also was his final day on the bench.
Johnson is tying up loose ends after 20 years in the state judiciary’s Family Division. That is a very atypical tenure in a system that routinely shifts judges among criminal, civil, and law sections.
“At this moment, I’m the longest, continuously serving Family judge in New Jersey, until the 30th of June,” Johnson said. “And then, I move on.”
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Johnson, who turns 64 in July, spent Monday and Tuesday saying goodbye to co-workers. In a sign of the times, the celebrations were both via Zoom and in person at the Bridgeton courthouse that holds his office.
“Please do not create a judicial bureaucracy of forms and factors and requirements that the system cannot sustain,” Johnson said in remarks to colleagues on Tuesday. “We do not want the vacancy-filled judiciary we love to collapse under its own weight from forms, factors, and requirements.”
Johnson, who lives in his native Fairfield Township, has served since August 2015 as Family Division presiding judge for Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties. Occasionally, he turned down offers to switch to the criminal law or civil law divisions.
Back in his office, Johnson said a judge in the family law section experiences a satisfaction not found in other assignments.
“Because when you are successful you know you have really helped families and protected children,” Johnson said. “And to me that’s the greatest honor — to work in a job where you can help families and protect children.
“And although money may be involved and there may be some, once-in-a-while, violations of the law, the bottom line is you’re trying to help families move on with their life in the safest way possible and in the best emotional, psychological and financial circumstances that they can,” he said.
Johnson had a good grounding for his bench career. His first 19 years in private practice heavily focused on family law. His retirement plans, as of now, envision working the same arena in a different capacity.
As retired judges sometimes do, Johnson anticipates working as a mediator and arbitrator to settle cases out of court.
“I came to this job because I wanted to help people,” Johnson said. “And I still have some fire in my belly to keep helping.”
Johnson joined Superior Court in July 2002, six months after an appointment to the state Workers’ Compensation Court.
His appointment to Worker’s Compensation Court in January 2002 required him to resign from the Cumberland County Board of Freeholders. A Republican, he won election to the freeholder board in November 1999.