PROVIDENCE — The Superior Court’s presiding justice is farming Providence County civil trials out to judges in the neighboring county to help relieve a backlog of cases that is stretching out several months and clogging the system.

Presiding Justice Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. notified the lawyers handling 24 cases slated for trial in Providence County Superior Court by letter last week that their proceedings would be heard in Kent County, unless they can make a convincing argument otherwise.

“I want to move cases along so we can get back to normal,” Rodgers said. The lawyers will get the chance to argue against the move before Rodgers on Tuesday.

There are 105 civil cases ready for trial in Providence County, but the wait for those proceedings to begin has grown to two months or more, said Sharon McCaughey, project coordinator of the scheduling office. Some have been waiting since September. Previously, lawyers would wait only a week or so.

Providence County Superior Court is down one judge since Vincent A. Ragosta retired last May and it will soon be short another, with Mark A. Pfeiffer’s retirement next month. Until then, Pfeiffer will not be available for the trial pool as he closes up matters, Rodgers said. Judge Allen P. Rubine is working two days a week after being out due to illness almost a year.

In addition, the system is short a magistrate. This means Rodgers must assign one judge each month to handle scheduling, removing another from the pool, he said.

This leaves the court essentially with only five of its typically nine full-time judges at a time when the courts saw a 22 percent jump from 2007 to 2008 in the number of civil suits filed, he said. “I don’t have enough judges,” Rodgers said. “I’m robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

But there can be some hesitancy about moving civil litigation to more suburban courts. There is a perception that jurors in other counties are not as generous and that those in urban areas tend to be less affluent and more sympathetic to lawsuits, Rodgers said.

Jury awards in Providence County Superior Court in 2007 totaled $39.7 million, including interest, with an average award of $1.9 million across 40 cases.

Kent County saw far fewer trials in the same year, with juries awarding a total of $51,100 for an average award of $7,300 across seven cases. While in Washington County, the most state’s most rural area, juries awarded $17,000 for an average award of $8,500 across seven cases.

Miriam Weizenbaum, president of Rhode Island Association for Justice, said trial delays and the lag in appointing judges are robbing the state of money. Jury awards, she said, translate into dollars flooding into the system for clients who are sometimes desperately in need of resources due to an injury.

“Having a trial forces the resolution of cases that in turn injects millions into the economy,” Weizenbaum said.

She said she doesn’t object to Providence County civil suits being heard in Kent County, as long as neither party felt they would be prejudiced.

Mark Morse, chairman of the Rhode Island Bar Association’s Superior Court Bench Bar Committee, took aim at Governor Carcieri for leaving Ragosta’s seat open so long. The Judicial Nominating Commission forwarded five candidates for the governor’s consideration last July.

State law calls for the governor to fill judicial vacancies within 21 days of receiving a list of finalists from the JNC. But the governor’s office has said that it considers “the so-called deadline” advisory.

“I think it’s terrible that the governor hasn’t appointed judges and it’s contributing to the backlog,” Morse said. “I can’t fathom what’s motivating him.”

The governor’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

kmulvane@projo.com