Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts

“The most important measure
of any system that resolves and
adjudicates disputes is the extent
to which it administers
justice in a fair and credible
manner. If a significant portion
of New York’s poor are denied
meaningful access to the
court system, a system for administering
justice cannot
serve its underlying purpose
well.”
– Legal Services of New
York, January 2007
panoply of courts. The average citizen and even experienced
practitioners find the current structure difficult to decipher. For
example, it makes little sense that a civil matter involving a claim
for $10,000 is litigated in Civil Court if the case is brought in
New York City, in the District Court if the case is brought on
Long Island, and in the City Court or Supreme Court if the case
is brought in other parts of the state. To make matters even more
confusing, a litigant would have to bring an additional suit in the
Court of Claims if the case also involved a claim against the state.
Likewise, a nonfelony criminal matter would be prosecuted in
Criminal Court if the case were brought in New York City, in the
District Court if the case were brought in Nassau County, in the
City Court in other parts of the state and, depending on the crime,
in the Justice Courts in still other parts of the state. No other state
in the country has a system this fragmented.
More importantly, the current structure is not merely
confusing but is affirmatively harmful to many thousands of New
Yorkers who come into contact with the courts each year. As
described in Section Two of this Report, injured individuals,
families in crisis and businesses of every size are forced each day
to engage in unnecessary and expensive litigation and to navigate
among courts with overlapping and inconsistent jurisdictions. In
addition, as described in Section Three, the current structure is
wasteful and costly. Half a billion dollars per year would be
saved if our eleven trial courts were consolidated into a more
rational and efficient structure.
Temporary Judicial Assignments:
A Dysfunctional Solution
Over the past fifty years, our court system has struggled
with the provision of the Constitution which limits the number of
Supreme Court Justice positions that may be allocated by the
Legislature to each Judicial District. 34 Efforts to deal with the
shortage of judges resulting from these artificial limitations
provide yet another example of the problems inherent in the
current system.
34
See N.Y. CONST. art. VI, § 6(d).
22
A Court System for the Future, February 2007