Relates to the sufficiency of the number of judges and justices in districts and courts

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Cordell Cleare says this is needed

Each court in New York State should have the right number of judges to perform its duties and provide justice to the people of the State, and there must be an adequate number of judges to provide civil litigants with access to the court and to assure that all parties in criminal cases are able to pursue justice in the courts. It is vital that New York take a more deliberate approach in assigning judges in each judi- cial district. To that end, we must codify a regular systematic assess- ment of the courts' specific needs as many other states and the federal courts have done. The Chief Administrative Judge plays a role in this process and should be tasked with the responsibility to evaluate the adequacy of current judicial resources and issue a report to the Legislature setting forth their findings and recommendations, so that the Legislature may carry out its function. While New York State's Chief Administrative Judge has the duty to keep and report data for the Unified Court System under the Judiciary Law, they merely have the option to request a change in the number of judges as needed. The Chief Administrative Judge does not have the duty to request a change in the number of judges. Without a clear mandate requiring the Chief Administrative Judge to evaluate and recom- mend adjustments, it is unlikely that such requests for additional judg- es will be made. The Chief Administrative Judge's statutory responsibility to annually evaluate the adequacy of current court resources and issue an annual report should include a directive to analyze the number of judges in each court and request changes when appropriate-something not currently required in the reporting process. This annual report would inform the Legislature in carrying out its constitutional duty to set the number of judicial seats in each court, giving the court responsibility to initially identify the need to change the number of, judicial seats. Whether the courts are operating at peak efficiency should be determined through data and analysis, not speculation.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.