One of the current casualties of the pandemic appears to be the disappearance of the Land Use Docket, which is one of the special courts within the Superior Court system. It has now been out of operation for many months and is sorely missed. It is time to reinstate it.

The Land Use Docket began about nine years ago. It is a special court that only deals with land use cases which may be transferred to it from any Superior Court in the state. One applies to the Land Use Docket in much the same way one applies to transfer a matter to Complex Litigation. The court sits in Hartford and was originated by Judge Marshall Berger. Though Judge Berger heard most of the land use matters accepted into that docket, he also assigned some land use matters to judges with experience in land use matters in other courts.