News In Brief

Veteran Acting Supreme Court Justice Bernard J. Fried (See Profile) has been nominated to the Supreme Court bench by Governor David A. Paterson. The 70-year-old judge has been an acting justice since 1984, splitting his time between the criminal courts in the Bronx and Manhattan and the civil term in Manhattan. Since 2004, he has been at the Commercial Division in Manhattan. If confirmed by the state Senate, Justice Fried would become eligible to apply for certification to allow him to continue to serve as many as three two-year terms past the end of this year. Justice Fried said Friday he intends to seek to stay on the bench beginning next year. Acting justices are not eligible to seek certification.

Justice Fried has remained a judge on the New York City Criminal Court since his initial appointment in 1980 by Mayor Edward Koch. Since then, he has won reappointment from three other mayors to 10-year terms. Justice Fried has earned high grades from court administrators and litigants. “The commercial division is an extraordinary place to be,” the judge said Friday. “The breadth of the legal issues is overwhelming, the lawyering is superb. When I joined the court, I felt like I died and went to heaven.”