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Judge being added to Buffalo City Court

File photo

Buffalo is getting a new City Court judge, although that judge won't be on the bench for another year.The new judge was part of a package of new jurists on benches around the state approved by Governor Andrew Cuomo. The judge will be elected this fall along with two seats held by judges whose terms run out at the end of the year and who can run for re-election: Chief Judge Thomas Amodeo and Judge Patrick Carney.

Once the new judge is seated on January 1, 2015,  it will bring the City Court roster to 14. Amodeo says business is growing rapidly, especially for what he calls "problem-solving courts" like domestic violence, veterans, and mental illness.

"Since we have problem-solving courts, the amount of appearances that a judge has to have to make sure people are in compliance and over a one-year period of time they're coming back, instead of resolving a case in two or three court appearances, with the cases now you get someone with 20 court appearances," Amodeo says.

Amodeo says business generally is up, with small claims and civil cases increasing rapidly in the wake of years of economic disruption.

He says he expects a number of lawyers to vie for the new seat.

Mike Desmond is one of Western New York’s most experienced reporters, having spent nearly a half-century covering the region for newspapers, television stations and public radio. He has been with WBFO and its predecessor, WNED-AM, since 1988. As a reporter for WBFO, he has covered literally thousands of stories involving education, science, business, the environment and many other issues. Mike has been a long-time theater reviewer for a variety of publications and was formerly a part-time reporter for The New York Times.