December 20, 1982

After nine weeks of a strike by 550 Legal Aid Society lawyers, New York City's court officials and district attorneys say that the courts have managed to take up much of the slack with private lawyers but that postponements have begun to worsen the backlogs of criminal cases. Cases have been put off whenever possible, and as a result one administrative judge said that when the strike ends, it could be four to six months before the backlogs can be dealt with. The new backlogs are adding to an existing problem of limited trial capacity at a time of record criminal indictments. If the strike does not end by Jan. 1, these officials say, the trouble for the courts could become more serious. A Limit to 'Making Do' ''We just can't continue to limp along as we've been doing,'' said Joseph B. Williams, the administrative judge in charge of all criminal proceedings in the city. ''We've been making do, but there is just so much we can take before grinding to a halt.''

Governor-elect Mario M. Cuomo said yesterday that a state law governing the nomination of judges to the State Court of Appeals was inconsistent with the State Constitution. He asked a nominating panel to disregard the law and recommend additional candidates for a court vacancy. The law requires that a Governor be given three to five wellqualified candidates. Last week the panel, the Commission on Judicial Nomination, sent Mr. Cuomo the names of four candidates to fill the seat of Judge Domenick L. Gabrielli, who is retiring.

Christmas sales in the White Plains retail centers continued strong yesterday, a day after many merchants did their best business of the year. Following a slow start, holiday sales reversed direction a week ago when the weather cooled. The remaining five days of the shopping season - together with next Sunday, when most stores will join in the first unified Sunday opening immediately after Christmas that anyone remembers - are expected to answer questions that have been gnawing at some merchants: Are there simply too many stores, including outposts of New York's biggest retailers, for this city of some 50,000? Or is White Plains, in recent years the home for an increaing number of corporations, actually one of the fastest growing retail sites in the East? The catalyst for the questions is the Galleria, an urban shopping center on Main Street anchored by Abraham & Straus and J.C. Penney's first store in Westchester County. It also includes 150 small stores. Sales at the Galleria have been growing at a 20 percent annual rate since it opened in August 1980.

Four bombs exploded today and Saturday at South Africa's only nuclear power station, which is under construction on the rocky Atlantic coast just north of Cape Town. The underground African National Congress, in a statement issued in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, said it was responsible for the attack on the station, which was not in operation. No one was injured in the bombings, the police said. The security police said tonight that the damage to the Koeberg power station was still being assessed, but that there was no danger from radioactivity to the population of Cape Town or workers at the site.

After a run-up that lasted nearly two years, the value of the dollar on foreign exchange markets has begun to slide. While the dollar is expected to remain strong, the decline is likely to continue well into 1983, according to economists, traders and foreign exchange experts. Since early November, the dollar has dropped by more than 12 percent against the Japanese yen, 6 percent against the West German mark and 7 percent against the Swiss franc. Nevertheless, the dollar is still overvalued, analysts say. A year ago, for example, the dollar was trading 11 percent lower against the yen and 8 percent lower against the mark than at Friday's close on New York foreign exchange markets.