TRENTON – New Jersey Courts statewide will hold mandatory settlement conferences in landlord-tenant cases, under a Supreme Court order issued July 1.
According to a release, the conferences, an attempt to resolve cases without a trial, are expected to begin sometime in July. Priority will go to the oldest pending cases with the most unpaid rent and any newly filed cases where more than 12 months’ rent is owed. Parties from both sides will be required to appear at the mandatory settlement conference. If the landlord does not appear, the case will be dismissed. If the tenant does not appear and the landlord establishes entitlement to relief, the court will enter a default judgment.
Residential evictions will not proceed until the executive branch’s moratorium on evictions is lifted. The settlement conferences will be held primarily in a remote format, and courts will provide on-site technology resources to participants who need them. Judges will have the discretion to schedule mandatory in-person conferences, based on the individual circumstances of a case.
Court staff will have information available for the parties regarding rental assistance programs in each county. Settlement conferences have been conducted on a voluntary basis statewide since the summer of 2020; however, participation has been limited.
There are currently almost 14,000 landlord-tenant cases pending for more than one year. Tens of thousands of additional cases also involve prolonged periods of nonpayment of rent.
