Backlog

Top Camden County officials plan to meet today with women's advocates to look for a way to eliminate a backlog in the issuing of child-support checks by the Probation Department - a problem officials said they had solved in December. Last month, Assignment Judge I.V. DiMartino suggested that the county hire two more clerks - an idea that was met with immediate skepticism from Freeholder Director Robert E. Andrews. "It sounds to me like it's a classic bureaucratic response of throwing good money after bad," Andrews said yesterday.

A sharp increase in the number of people applying for disability benefits under Social Security has led to a record backlog of 800,000 cases and waiting periods of up to three months. With a sluggish economy and an aging population pushing up the number of applicants, the Bush administration projects that the backlog could grow to 1.4 million cases by 1993, with waiting periods of up to seven months. "We are now reaching a point where people are literally going to die waiting to find out whether they get their benefits," said Rep. Leon E. Panetta (D., Calif.

As of June, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court faced a backlog of 15,000 felony cases - 15,000 and climbing! Besides keeping people waiting far longer than justice demands, this violates the constitutional right to a speedy trial. And it's a major reason for the overpopulation of the city's prisons, which has created a problem of such disastrous potential that the federal courts have ordered releases of prisoners in order to keep a cap on the number of inmates. So what's being done about this problem?

Members of the Pennsylvania state Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony Friday from experts on solutions to easing the backlog of DNA test results on criminal suspects. Such a delay allowed the man accused of being the Kensington strangler to continue killing and raping women in Philadelphia. The hearing, called by Sen. Lawrence M. Farnese Jr. (D., Phila.) at the Independence Visitors Center, included legal experts and members of law enforcement. The panel included Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf (R., Montgomery)

A Philadelphia Common Pleas judge had to be removed from hearing cases for 5 1/2 months because he had fallen so far behind in writing legal opinions, officials in the troubled court confirmed yesterday. Judge Robert Latrone, assigned to the homicide trial program, was removed Sept. 29 by Judge Edward Blake, administrative judge of the Trial Division, so he could catch up in writing opinions in murder cases he'd handled that were on appeal. Common Pleas Court President Judge Edward Bradley yesterday confirmed Latrone had been removed.

Common Pleas Court's backlog isn't new - and neither are the controversies it triggers. Swollen lists of untried cases have dogged the court for 25 years - making it the epicenter for political battles that never go away. In 1964, when backlogs first became a controversy, court officials blamed the logjam on the fact that no new judgeships had been created for nearly 30 years. They said 31 judges couldn't cope with the load. Today, Common Pleas officials say 84 full-time judges and 19 part-time senior jurists are overwhelmed.

A backlog that has delayed the delivery of thousands of child-support checks should be cleared within a week, an official of the Camden County Probation Department said yesterday. Bob Fisler, supervisor of the department's domestic relations division, attributed the backlog to the county's transition to a new state computer network, which is expected to speed up the processing of checks eventually. He made his remarks after a news conference on the steps of Camden City Hall at which leaders of the New Jersey and Camden County chapters of the National Organization for Women (NOW)

Lukens Inc. has announced a significant increase in the backlog of orders in its Corrosion Protection Group. The company said the backlog of orders was five times greater than the 1989 year-end backlog and now totals $60 million. The group includes Energy Coatings Co. (Encoat) and Cathodic Protection Services Co. (CPS). "This backlog increase is due primarily to large orders received by Encoat for pipe coating in conjunction with the Kern River, Mojave and the San Juan/ Transwestern Expansion natural gas pipline projects," said John R. Batholdson, Lukens senior vice president.

THE POLICE Advisory Commission is often described as a toothless, civilian-run police oversight board without the authority to do anything. The PAC is only able to make recommendations to the Police Department in response to citizen complaints - something it's done just 21 times since 1994. In January, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey accepted a recommendation that officers brush up on guidelines about obtaining search warrants after two cops illegally entered a Frankford house in 2010.

Help is on the way for Chester County's understaffed district justice office. But the county judges say it's too little, too late - and the whole mess is too wrapped up in partisan politics. The office received word from the court administrator's office in Harrisburg this week that three senior district justices would be sent to the county to alleviate the case backlog created by six vacancies in the 13-seat system. Three seats - Malvern, Parkesburg and Kennett Square - are empty because of resignations, and one became vacant last week with the death of Downingtown District Justice C. Burtis Coxe.