Allows certain minor defendants to utilize electronic appearances

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Luis R. Sepúlveda says this is needed

Under the new CPL Article 182 that was enacted as part of the SFY 2025- 2026 New York Adopted Budget, defendants under the age of 18 were cate- gorically prohibited from using electronic appearances. This prohibition was based on the valid concern that minor defendants present unique issues during court proceedings which are normally best addressed by having them appear in person. Since the enactment of this provision, however, multiple stakeholders including institutional defense organiza- tions and the New York City Administration for Children's Services have raised concerns that this prohibition is overly broad and should be relaxed under two circumstances: to protect the best interests of the minor and to avoid unnecessary incarcerations. 1. PROTECTING THE BEST INTERESTS OF MINORS For routine appearances where significant events like a guilty plea, sentence or hearing are not scheduled to occur mandating minors to repeatedly appear physically in court, sometimes requiring long travel times, may interfere with important activities like school, treatment, work, health care, or family obligations. This bill therefore allows virtual appearances for routine matters not involving important events in a case to be conducted, again, only with the consent of all parties, if the court determines on the record that a virtual appearance is in the minor's best interests. The basis for such a determination could include, but would not be limited to, a finding "that a physical appear- ance will unnecessarily interfere with the minor defendant's partic- ipation in treatment, school, vocational training, work, family care, health care or other similarly important activity." This proposal also promotes increased participation in court proceedings for minor defendants. Under current law, lawyers may waive a minor defendant's appearance during a routine matter, to avoid the disruptions an in-person appearance might cause. This proposal would likely elimi- nate the need for such waivers in many cases, since a minor's partic- ipation in a virtual court appearance would often not cause any signif- icant interference with other important obligations. 2. AVOIDING UNNECESSARY INCARCERATIONS When minor defendants are arrested after the close of normal business hours and cannot be quickly arraigned in physical courtrooms, virtual arraignments would allow such defendants to be quickly released without having to be confined overnight or on a holiday or weekend when a court may be closed. This issue arises most frequently in less populous juris- dictions where courts are not physically open on nights or weekends and appropriate places to confine minor defendants awaiting arraignments may not be easily accessible. This bill would allow virtual arraignments for minors when three condi- tions are met. First, such an arraignment would have to be necessary because no court was open when a minor first became available for arraignment. Second, all parties would have to consent to the virtual arraignment. Finally, the only securing order which could be imposed at such an arraignment would be a release on recognizance or with non-monetary conditions. If a minor defendant was potentially going to be confined, an in-person appearance would still be required. In sum, these two narrow allowances for virtual appearances by minor defendants would retain the important considerations reflected in the Legislature's decision to generally prohibit such appearances, permit- ting them only in circumstances in which they would clearly benefit minors. 6.

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.