SAN ANTONIO – The Family Violence Impact Courts have made changes to immediately tackle the backlog of more than 2,500 cases.
The Bexar County Commissioners Court in December helped fund an effort to address the backlog with $2.37 million.
Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez and Judge Michael De Leon currently handle all family violence cases, but the latest funding made it possible for two other county court at law judges to take on the backlogged or oldest cases.
“Judge Mary Roman and Judge Tommy Stolhandske are helping take a really big share of the cases and they’ve already started hearing 50 to 60 cases a day,” Bexar County Courts-At-Law Administrative Judge John Longoria said.
While many are trying to help, Longoria said its still hard to keep up with new additional cases being added each day.
“It’s a bad situation and we as a society have to address that,” Longoria said.
There are two ways Longoria stated to hopefully help break the cycle. One is making sure victims get the help they need and the other is through restorative justice.
“We need to continue to work at it and we need the support of the community to work with us and work with our families that are suffering,” Longoria said.