Inga O’Neale campaigning for Kings County Supreme Court
Civil Court Judge Inga O’Neale is one of a bench of judges nominated to run for a seat on the Kings County Supreme Court this year.
Judge O’Neale’s name will be on the ballot this November 5. She was nominated as one of seven Democratic Party contenders for the Brooklyn-based Supreme Court at the Judicial Convention on August 8.
The recognition and nomination are honors, she says, and if she wins the judgeship it will give her the opportunity to continue her family’s tradition of working in service to the community. “I worked in the Supreme Court for 19 years as an attorney before I ran for office,” O’Neale told the AmNews. “So I’ve dedicated my entire 22-year legal career to public service.
“What we do in the courts system, regardless of title, is public service,” she said. “The people coming to court don’t come because they want to. They come because something has happened in their lives. Our responsibility is to make sure that we address whatever that issue is. So, it’s important for the bench to be diverse because it helps so that we –– as the bench –– are making decisions that are in tune with the community appearing before us.”
Born in Antigua, O’Neale and her family moved to Grenada when she was young. She was raised there among extended family members who mostly took on jobs as nurses and teachers.
“Being that I am someone who moved here as a young adult from the Caribbean, I understand what it is to feel unfamiliar with being able to navigate the [New York State court system] process.”
Her grandmother was the first in the family to come to the United States looking for better economic opportunities. Later she encouraged her children, O’Neale’s aunts and uncles, to make the move as well. But her parents initially remained in the Caribbean because her father had a secure job. What she and her brother came to understand was that both of their parents came from large families where they had not been afforded the opportunity to attend college. Still, their parents instilled in them the importance of education, having a strong work ethic, getting a good job, and being committed to community.
Their father was involved in the Rotary Club, a community service organization, and their mother took on a job as a nurse while working with groups that aided their school and helped local children’s homes. O’Neale grew up seeing her parents as community builders and from an early age started doing things like serving as a Girl Guide (a British equivalent to the Girl Scouts) to follow their model.
“I guess for me, I always wanted to help and to serve. I wanted to either be a doctor or a lawyer –– I know it sounds cliché, but I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to do. So, when I moved here, I ended up at Stony Brook thinking, okay, I’m going to do medicine. I did my first semester of the sciences. And you know, I think it was chemistry: it’s not that I couldn’t do it, but it just didn’t give me joy. I love English and history, because I love stories, I love reading, I love learning about people and what I do every day at work, it’s the same thing: I’m listening to people’s stories. I’m listening to each side before I make a decision. … I thought this was a way that I could help people by being a lawyer and being a teacher. I love to teach people, to share my knowledge and to help. So that’s how it led me into the path of me going to law school. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in law, but I knew I wanted to be a lawyer.”
O’Neale began working as an attorney in the court system in 2002. She eventually worked as a criminal court judge for one year before being transferred to civil court, where she’s been assigned for the past two years. She is a member of the Equal Justice in the Courts committee, Metropolitan Black Bar Association, Judicial Friends Internship Committee, Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, the Brooklyn Bar, Caribbean American Lawyers Associations, and of the Brooklyn Canarsie Lion’s Club. If O’Neale becomes a justice in the Kings County Supreme Court, she will serve a 14-year term.
The Kings County Supreme Court handles matrimonial actions, personal injury, breach of contract, labor and employment, felony cases, foreclosures, and elder law/guardianship cases. Judges are responsible for making decisions that are fair, after having listened impartially and to both sides of a case, O’Neale points out, because their decisions affect people’s lives. “So, it is important for the general population –– the voting public –– to be aware of who’s on the bench. Because we have to follow ethical rules.”
Many of the people showing up for court dates are coming there for the first time in their first exposure to the court system. That’s one of many reasons why it’s important for the bench to be diverse, Judge O’Neale contends, so that the judicial system remains sensitive to the issues that are faced by the people appearing before it.
“For me, regardless of what someone looks like or where they’re from or what language they speak, my responsibility is that I’m committed to treating everyone the way that I would want a friend, a family member, or even myself to be treated if I were appearing before a judge or in the court and interacting with court staff.”
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