With some litigants facing costs of discovery special masters necessitated by New Jersey’s judge shortage, a motion in one such case is calling on the state to pay those bills.

The plaintiff in a wrongful-termination suit in Somerset County Superior Court, ordered to pay half of the $600-per-hour cost of a retired judge appointed to resolve discovery disputes, has called for state funds that would otherwise be used to pay judges’ salaries to be applied to discovery master fees.