Court administrators have temporarily assigned a third surrogate in Brooklyn in an attempt to erase a backlog that sources say has grown as a result of the failure of the two Surrogates, Margarita López Torres (See Profile) and Diana Johnson (See Profile), to cooperate with one another.
As of late February, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bruce Balter (See Profile), who had been sitting in the criminal term’s trial part, was assigned to Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court to handle uncontested probate proceedings and uncontested letters of administration to allow estates to launch lawsuits.
