About Joe
First-Generation Italian-American. Sitting Judge. Father of Two
Joseph J. Zavaglia is a sitting Onondaga County Family Court Judge, elected in November 2023. He is a first-generation Italian-American, the son of immigrants who came to this country in the 1950s with nothing but the will to build something. He worked tile, marble, and construction alongside his father and brother while putting himself through college, then law school, in upstate New York.
He joined the legal community in Onondaga County in 2002 and has spent more than two decades practicing across the full range of what Supreme Court justices actually handle: complex civil and criminal proceedings, family law, landlord-tenant, real estate, custody and matrimonial matters. He has been on the bench for over eleven years, first as an elected Village Justice, now as a Family Court Judge.
In November 2023, Joe received more votes than any other candidate — Democrat or Republican — in the Onondaga County Family Court race. He has demonstrated the ability to earn broad, cross-partisan support in the district's largest county. He is running for Supreme Court because the breadth of his experience, his judicial record, and his roots in this community make him ready for it.