Frank Lautenberg: “this is a good day for New Jersey. I am so pleased the Senate has confirmed the appointment of an outstanding citizen of…”

“this is a good day for New Jersey. I am so pleased the Senate has confirmed the appointment of an outstanding citizen of our State, Joel Pisano, for a seat on the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. He is a competent, thorough, well-thought-of individual. I thank Senator Hatch and Senator Leahy for their help in moving Mr. Pisano's nomination through the Judiciary Committee and their support of his nomination. I recommended him in June of 1999. I am grateful to hear he was confirmed by a vote of 95 to 2. Joel Pisano has outstanding credentials. He is going to be an excellent addition to our district court. The backlog of cases is very high. It takes a long time for people to bring their cases and have them adjudged. Joel Pisano will be an excellent addition to our bench and help move that caseload fairly and rapidly. He has served as a magistrate judge since 1991. He is already performing many of the duties of a district court judge, including jury and nonjury trials. He has managed pretrial proceedings in about 600 civil cases, so he is used to controlling the large caseload of a Federal court. He has also dealt with a wide variety of different cases--patent and trademark cases, environmental cleanup disputes, antitrust and securities litigation, employment discrimination cases, and civil RICO matters.”