Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts

“New York has the most complex
and costly court system in
the country, a system that too
often fails to provide justice
while imposing an undue burden
on taxpayers.”
– Gov. Eliot Spitzer,
January 2007
We believe that it is finally time for change. There is
simply no reason why the people and businesses of New York
State should have to suffer any longer with the most backward
and inefficient court structure in the nation. In recent months,
the groundswell of support for court reform has grown stronger,
with Governor Eliot Spitzer announcing in his first State of the
State Address his intention to introduce a constitutional
amendment “to consolidate and integrate our balkanized courts.”
Against this backdrop, the reform process should begin
immediately, and this Report provides a blueprint for that reform.
As set forth more fully in the body of the Report, we call for:
• A consolidation of the state’s major trial courts into a simple
two-tier structure with a single Supreme Court and a
statewide network of District Courts.
• The merger into the Supreme Court of the current Court
of Claims, the County Courts, the Family Courts and the
Surrogate’s Courts.
• The creation within the newly merged Supreme Court of
six distinct, but not jurisdictionally separate, Divisions:
Family, Commercial, State Claims, Criminal, Probate,
and a General Division.
“A streamlined, two-tier court
system will eliminate many of
the shortcomings of the present
system, permit the allocation of
resources where they are most
needed, reduce the overlapping
and conflicting jurisdictions of
many of the trial courts, and
vastly improve the administration
of justice.”
– The Association of the
Bar of the City of New
York, Council on Judicial
Administration
(1998)
• The merger into the District Court of the current Civil and
Criminal Courts in New York City, the Nassau and Suffolk
District Courts, and the sixty-one City Courts outside
of New York City. (This new court would have
jurisdiction over misdemeanors, housing cases, and civil
claims involving $50,000 or less.)
• The creation of a Fifth Department of the Appellate Division,
and the expansion of the pool of judges who are
eligible for the Appellate Division to include all those
who sit in the newly consolidated Supreme Court.
• The elimination of the constitutional ceiling on the number
of Supreme Court judgeships that can be created by
the Legislature.
These proposals are discussed in much greater detail in
the body of this Report, which also includes, as an appendix, a
draft of the constitutional amendment that would be needed to
implement them.
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A Court System for the Future, February 2007