As seen in The Spirit (West Side) and Our Town (East Side) Aug. 14, 2008.

The candidates:
Manhattan Surrogate’s Court is where estates and contested wills are settled and adoption decisions are made.

The court’s two judges are each elected to serve 14-year terms, but they must resign at the end of the calendar year in which they turn 70, as Judge Renee Roth will in December.

With no Republican running, the winner of a three-way Democratic primary, on Sept. 9, will join Judge Kristin Booth Glenn, who was elected in 2005, on the bench.

Nora Anderson was a clerk in Surrogate’s Clerk for many years. John Reddy, Jr., is counsel to the Public Administrator and Judge Milton Tingling has served as a judge in criminal, civil and supreme courts.

Though all three candidates have been endorsed by organizations and individuals across Manhattan Island, the county Democratic committee is backing Tingling.

Nora Anderson:

Nora Anderson wants to replace her boss.

A former clerk in the Surrogate’s Court, Anderson worked under Judge Eve Preminger and later under Judge Renee Roth, who will retire by year’s end.

Anderson has never sought office before and said she has cut back her hours at the Brooklyn firm Seth Rubinstein, P. C. to devote time to campaigning. Although she still accepts and tries cases, the campaign takes up most of her time and energy. After spending all day with voters and supporters, she returns to her Upper West Side apartment only to sleep.

Anderson studied biology at Hampton University and worked briefly in a laboratory researching cures for tropical diseases before deciding to pursue a law degree instead. She attended Brooklyn Law College at night while working full time in the office of General Counsel at the New York City Department of parks and Recreation.

Anderson argues that her experience in Surrogate’s Court makes her the strongest candidate. She knows the law, the court and how the appeals process works, she explained, so she can write the strongest decisions.

As a former clerk in the court, Anderson said that educating clerks in all aspects of the law and probate proceedings will help the court run more smoothly. Rotating clerks around the various departments will also expose them to all aspects of Surrogate’s Court, eliminating the need to hire new personnel. This will streamline work, too: file clerks sometimes direct lawyers to complete or edit forms in different ways, causing delays in paper processing and, ultimately, all proceedings. Anderson also wants clerks who help litigants without representation to help attorneys who are unfamiliar with the laws surrounding the execution of wills and settling of estates. And finally, as a lawyer, Anderson said she has a better understanding of litigators’ busy schedules and overhead costs. Some judges are not sympathetic to the needs of lawyers, she said.

Her overall goal, though, is to help more New Yorkers avoid actually going to Surrogate’s Court to settle estates. Trying a case in any court, she said, usually takes more time and money for litigants than if the parties involved can settle the issue themselves. The stakes are also higher.

“When you come to court,” she said, “You’re putting you life in the hands of a judge or a jury.”