The Honorable Lizette Colon is an acting Supreme Court justice for the 2nd Judicial District, Civil Term since 2019. She is running on the Democratic Party line for a full term in the Supreme Court. Previously, Judge Colon was a Judge in the Civil Debt Part for Brooklyn and Staten Island, following in the footsteps of her mentor, the late Judge Noach Dear.
Colon joined the U.S. Army reserve after high school in 1984 and became a Military Intelligence Officer. In 1991, at the urging of her mother, Colon took the Civil Service exam and became a Spanish-language Court interpreter. As someone who was born in Puerto Rico, Colon wanted to help people who needed to navigate the court system but did not know the English language. Colon learned about the court system and the various positions. She recommends that people take the Civil Service exam to help their own communities.
While on army reserve, Colon would take off two weeks a year for training. In 1996, Judge Colon became Senior Court Clerk in the Supreme Court Criminal Term, New York County. After receiving her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1998, she worked as a Court Attorney. She was on active duty during the War on Terror from 2003 to 2005 in both the Pentagon and Iraq; she retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Colon was the President of the Catholic Lawyers Guild, President form 2015 until 2017.
Colon handles pretty much every discovery matter in Kings County, Civil Term. She enjoys helping others. “Not everyone will love you,” she says. “Someone will lose in a case. People have to figure out how unhappy they want to be.” Parties may want to decide to settle.
As the mother of an adult son with autism, Judge Colon wanted to give back to others. Therefore, she regularly volunteers to judge guardianship cases. She tries to help people with all kinds of disabilities and move the cases along quickly. Additionally, Judge Colon is a longtime volunteer with the On the Mark organization.
Why should people vote for Judge Colon? “I have a good work ethic; I listen to everyone’s case; I am well aware of and well versed in the issues at hand in every particular case.” Judge Colon says that she will “fairly judge what is placed before” her, regardless of who is before her.