Christine Garland touts experience in historic bid for Cayuga County family court judge – The Citizen

If elected as a Cayuga County Family Court judge, she can apply her legal knowledge while helping a vulnerable population.

Garland is running on the Democratic line for the newly created position. Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to add a family court judge in Cayuga County, which has a backlog of more than 900 cases.

The daughter of a high school football coach and a special education teacher, Garland told The Citizen that she knew she wanted to be a lawyer when she was 16 years old. Her original plan, given her upbringing, was to focus on education law.

Garland was a strength and conditioning coach at the University of Minnesota when he enrolled at what is now Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. After her first year of law school, she took an internship at the Ramsey County District Attorney’s office in St. Paul.

“I knew I wanted to be in court, and I wanted to be a judge,” Garland recalled. “They put me in court for child support. There were eight of us. We were student lawyers and we had our own cases.’

The internship continued into her second year of law school, where she met her future husband, Nate, the current corporation counsel for the City of Auburn. Nate Garland was born in Fair Haven, so the couple decided to move to New York.

After moving, Christine Garland took a job in Delaware County, where she was an assistant district attorney and social services attorney. She was admitted to the New York bar on Feb. 21, 2007, she says, and within weeks was litigating child abuse and neglect cases.

Garland began working in Cayuga County after giving birth to and caring for her daughter, Josie, who was born with congenital cytomegalovirus, or CMV. She took on similar roles working in the district attorney’s office and the Department of Human Services handling child abuse and neglect cases. She was also an Assistant District Attorney in the Cayuga County District Attorney’s Office and had a private practice focusing on family law.

“I started practicing family law and litigating in family court because of the fact that I knew I wanted to be in the courtroom and I knew I wanted to be in an area of ​​the law that affected children,” Garland said. “Did I think in law school I wanted to do abuse and neglect cases for a living? Absolutely not. It’s not something anyone gets into.

“What I do know is that when I entered this field of practice, it was definitely what was meant to be my life’s work. It’s very difficult, but I’m very good at it.”

In 2019, the Auburn City Council appointed Garland as an associate judge in the Auburn City Court. She is the first woman to serve as a city judge.

Garland, who is in her sixth year on the bench, believes her judicial experience stands out in her bid to be a Cayuga County Family Court judge. Her opponent, Auburn attorney Steven Bushman, has practiced in family court for 26 years but has never been a judge.

As a city judge, Garland hears more than 1,000 criminal cases and hundreds of civil cases a year. Courtroom experience has helped hone her skills as a judge.

“It’s not easy,” she said. “I think if it’s easy for you to judge other people, then you shouldn’t be a judge because you’re dealing with human lives. It’s a lot of listening and paying attention to small details, being reasoned, holding back your innate biases and opinions and applying the law and the facts.”

In addition to the cases Garland has heard, she has also gained experience handling administrative duties, such as efforts to introduce programming to the city court and enforce rules. She serves on panels within the 7th Judicial District, which includes Cayuga County.

In 2023, she was appointed to the Gender Equity Commission, which is responsible for implementing the recommendations of a 2020 study on gender inequality in the courts. One of the first issues to be addressed was the availability of infant rooms for court officials and users. There are other areas of concern, including women being awarded less money than men in civil courts.

Those administrative duties are important, Garland says, because the family court judge will need to identify resources and bring programming to Cayuga County. She has already done this as a city court judge. One example she provided was a study of housing court mediation programs in Monroe County. She wanted to bring that to Auburn, so she found legal services in Ithaca and Syracuse that came to her court every Monday.

One of the primary tasks of a family court judge will be dealing with the growing backlog of cases. According to data from the New York State Unified Judicial System, the county has 913 pending family court cases.

Working through the backlog is not a new problem for Garland. Civil courts could not hear cases for more than a year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawsuits can be filed, but not tried.

Once the courts were allowed to resume civil proceedings, Garland said they had to figure out how to clean up the cases. They added extra calendars in the afternoons and made “effective decisions efficiently.” She will take a similar approach as a family court judge.

Garland has already made history as the first woman to run for district judge. She would be the first woman elected as a district judge and the third woman to hold the countywide office if she succeeds in November.

When she knocks on doors and talks to constituents, Garland emphasizes her experience. She notes that she is the only candidate in the race with judicial and prosecutorial experience, which she says makes her the most qualified candidate for family court judge.

“I’m invested in our community and I care about our community — and I’m ready to go to work,” Garland said.