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Eyes locked on county judge race

Stephanie Longo Times Leader Correspondent

On Nov. 3, voters in Lackawanna County will have the opportunity to elect a new judge to the Court of Common Pleas to fill a newly created position designed to reduce judicial workloads.

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Castellano

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Bisignani-Moyle

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At the beginning of this month, Lackawanna County President Judge Chester Harhut announced the position will serve the family court due to the retirement of Senior Judge Carlon O’Malley at the end of this year.

Margie Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Castellano are both vying for the new position, which was one of 12 new Court of Common Pleas judgeships created statewide. State Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, who was heavily involved with the establishment of the new position, explained there are several reasons for the creation of the new assignment.

“The workload for the judges has increased significantly and the complexity of the cases is much greater,” Sen. Mellow said. Both Bisignani-Moyle and Castellano have years of experience in dealing with various legal matters. However, Castellano believes that his experience as deputy district attorney in the juvenile division and as one of the developers of the county’s nationally recognized juvenile treatment court, gives him a slight edge over Bisignani-Moyle.

“This is the work that I have been doing exclusively for the past seven years,” Castellano said. “These are the cases that I do… “in this race, I am the only person who has had that experience in family law; I am the only candidate who has ever handled a juvenile matter. My opponent has never handled a juvenile case in her career and she has said that on record many times.”

When asked to comment about allegedly never handling a juvenile case in her career, Bisignani-Moyle explained that she did not handle juvenile cases while working as assistant district attorney in Miami-Dade County, Florida, under Janet Reno, the former attorney general, because of her prior legal experience in Pennsylvania, where she did practice in family court.

“My opponent is correct when he says that in Miami I did not practice in family court. That is true,” Bisignani-Moyle said. “But I have practiced in family court in Pennsylvania. When I went to Miami, I had already been practicing law for three years and had had about 30 jury trials on very serious cases, like armed robbery, rape, and vehicular homicide. These are all cases I took to jury trial.

Bob Schwartz, executive director of the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, explained that although prior experience in family court is helpful for a new judge, it isn’t necessary.

“It all depends on the person’s training, experience, and willingness to learn,” Schwartz said. “All new judges go through a training that the administrative office of Pennsylvania courts requires. Somebody who is experienced in representing children or parents in a range of family court matters will have a head start on that. I’ve also known lawyers who have stepped in to juvenile court who have trained and reached out and who have become very good at what they do. I think it all depends on the person. There are no guarantees in this business.”

Schwartz said that, above all, voters need to closely examine the candidates running, not the position for which they are running.

“I think you have to look at all the other issues: How has this person performed? What is their reputation for empathy, for fidelity to the law?” he said. “And to make sure that children and parents are and know they are being treated fairly by the system. What you really want is a Solomon in there.”