Jeanne T. Covert, A.J.S.C.

Judge Jeanne T. Covert served for twenty years in the New Jersey Superior Court where she sat in the Family Court, the Civil Court and the Criminal Court.  She was elevated to leadership positions, where she served as the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Court in Burlington, and then was named Chair of all Presiding Judges in Criminal Courts statewide. She was then named Presiding Judge of the Civil Division before being chosen by Chief Justice Stuart Rabner to lead all the Burlington County Courts as the Assignment Judge in 2019.  In that capacity she was also in charge of all forty Municipal Courts in the County as well as over 350 Court employees.

While serving in the Civil Court, and as Assignment Judge, she presided over dozens of affordable housing cases and conducted some of the rare trials in this unique area of law, receiving an affirmance on Appeal in a published decision in one of these cases. She also was a member of the statewide judicial committee on affordable housing and actively assisted the Administrative Office of the Courts in the development of affordable housing protocols and Orders.  She handled every variety of civil dispute including prerogative writs and zoning matters as well as labor and employment and personal injury cases.  Her position as the Assignment Judge also called for the management of multiple high profile and complex litigation matters.

During her tenure in Family Court, she heard matrimonial cases, non-dissolution matters and children in court cases.  She presided over hundreds of matters involving custody, parenting time, equitable distribution, alimony, child support and any other dispute within families, including matters involving DCPP.

Judge Covert lives in Burlington County and graduated from Rutgers Law School in 1985, with highest honors in the study of Tort law.  She was also a Moot Court Appellate Advocacy Finalist.  Prior to that she attended the University of Delaware where she graduated in 1980 magna cum laude and phi beta kappa.  Before taking the bench, she was an assistant prosecutor and a private criminal defense lawyer, as well as a municipal public defender in several towns; her practice focused exclusively on litigation.

Judge Covert, during her judicial tenure, served on over fifteen Supreme Court and Statewide administrative committees, including the Supreme Court Committee on Professionalism, Attorney Wellness, Criminal Justice Reform, and Judicial Salaries and Pensions.  She was the Chairperson of the Recovery Court working group, the Search Warrant and Wiretap working group, as well as the Co-Chair of the committees on Jury Operations in the Courts, Landlord/Tenant and Job outreach.  She was a member of the judicial committee on artificial intelligence and judicial security. She served on the Judicial Council, which is the leadership body for all Courts in New Jersey as well as on the subcommittees for Court labor relations, budgets, and operations.

She has lectured on all areas of the law within the judiciary including the civil case law update, the orientation of new judges, and judicial security, just to name a few.  Every year she presents at the New Jersey State Bar Association annual meeting on the “Supreme Court year in review” along with three Supreme Court Justices and two other past and present State level Judges. Finally, she is an active member of both the Burlington County Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association.

She is now devoting her mediation practice to helping you find alternative solutions to litigation, with a deep well of experience in all aspects of court, she can assist you in coming to agreements that will satisfy all parties and avoid the time and expense of a protracted trial.

Civil Disputes

-Affordable Housing

-Complex Case Management

-General Civil matters

-Zoning and Government

Family Disputes

-Divorce

-Custody and Parenting Time

-Alimony

-Child Support

-Equitable Distribution

-Relocation

-Grandparenting Time