Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts

— SECTION FIVE —
RECENT ADMINISTRATIVE INITIATIVES
In the absence of structural reform, OCA has over the
past ten years developed a number of initiatives that have
attempted to ameliorate the structural inefficiencies of the court
system by way of administrative fiat. These include the
introduction of the Commercial Division, a separate unit within
the Supreme Court that specializes in addressing complex
business disputes; the Integrated Domestic Violence Courts,
which attempt to bring together the separate cases that can arise
out of a single family in crisis; and Community Courts, which
look more holistically at the related criminal, housing,
and family problems that can face litigants in a particular
community. These innovations and others have met with
tremendous success, and have garnered widespread attention
inside and outside of the state.
Many of these initiatives have helped realize the types of
savings and efficiencies that could be brought about by a true
consolidation of the trial court system. At the same time, these
successes – while significant – have not been brought to a
statewide scale. To achieve such scale, it is clear that reform
must be more fundamental, and not the result of administrative
action. That said, these initiatives clearly foretell the benefits of
a consolidated system. For this reason, several of these successes
are described below.
The Commercial Division
Prior to 1995, many New York businesses tried to avoid
New York’s state courts because the courts were viewed as
inefficient, slow and costly, especially as compared to other, more
modern state systems. Indeed, this perception was so widespread
that New York had developed a reputation as a state whose legal
system was hostile to business interests. 122 In 1995, the
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Symposium, Refinement or Reinvention: The State of Reform in New
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A Court System for the Future, February 2007 61