New York State Town and Village Courts are typically not the first thing people think of when justice comes to mind. But, as 330,000 of their 2.2 million cases a year are criminal, they are an important hand in this state’s court system. The presiding officers of New York’s local courts are making important decisions, yet 72% of the justices of these courts are not lawyers. This needs to change.

Unlike the rest of the system, these courts are funded by their respective towns and villages. The only organization in charge of them, the underfunded Office of Court Administration (OCA), has oversight of the approximately 1,800 local justices, but that’s not enough. Numerous discrepancies and abuses of power within local courts have been apparent for some time, and “reforms”’ made almost two decades ago need to be readdressed.

The Chief Judge of the state of New York, Janet DiFiore, released a proposal in February to reform and simplify the statewide court structure, which would save New York an estimated hundreds of millions in litigation costs over the next few years. However, the only adjustment for local courts is equal justice committees in each of New York’s 13 judicial districts which will have a negligible impact on the 1,800 widespread justices.

If a legislative amendment to court consolidation included a statute requiring all municipal justices lawyers legally allowed to practice in their jurisdiction, less malpractice and injustice would occur, and New York would take a large step toward the assurance of due process.

An extensive investigation by The New York Times published in 2006 highlighted decades of failures of the New York Village court system. The report contained stories of citizens not receiving due process and local justices abusing their power for personal purposes, and it presented a distinct difference between local and higher court justices.

Due to the isolated nature of these courts, failings within them can have extenuating consequences. Local courts have jurisdiction over cases small enough to not draw much interest from the rest of the legal system, including civil suits up to $3,000, evictions, misdemeanor charges, driving infractions and applications for bail. These cases can deliver wide-reaching implications for small-town residents who may not have access to a lawyer.

In Franklin County, where only one out 32 justices are lawyers, one justice freed a rape suspect on bail as a favor to a friend and another sentenced a welfare recipient to 89 days in jail after she failed to pay a $1.50 cab fare. Local justices have presided drunk, fixed cases and denied lawyers to defendants, The New York Times reported. If all New York courts were officiated by someone with an actual legal education, then more New Yorkers might have faith in local justice.

In the subsequent years after The New York Times’s investigative piece was published, the legislature formed “The Special Commission on the Future Town and Village Courts in New York State.” They completed a report in 2008 recommending misdemeanor defendants should have the right to have their case heard by a judge who is an attorney.

Both The New York Times and the Commission’s report shined the spotlight on this issue, and they forced the hand of the local court’s body of oversight, OCA, to address it. A new statute was instituted calling for every village court to record their proceedings for increased transparency.

Former Onondaga County First Chief Assistant District Attorney, Rick Trunfio, testified on the matter in front of the commission. He later said that these reforms have not been sufficient.

“Many view the town and village courts as their own little empire. The changes made by the OCA were superficial since the state court system has very little control over local courts. The recordings are terrible, and personally, I’ve had several instances of judges forgetting to even turn them on during trials. And even getting access to the recordings is a gigantic bureaucratic process few go through,” Trunfio said. “The reforms were few and far between and did not change anything.”

Since reforms from the state administration have not and cannot be sufficient at the local level, it is clear that legislative action is the only way forward.

New York State municipal justices are a subject of scandal for some and pride for others. Either way, despite the clear issues within local courts, the recommendations given to the state in 2008 were never acted upon.

The only way to ensure equal justice within a court of law is to have a presiding officer who is trained in law. The OCA does not have the required power to implement such a policy. Instead, the statute must be amended by the New York state legislature.

Chief Judge Fiore is looking to garner support in both houses of the legislature as well as Gov. Kathy Hochul’s approval for her plan. Regardless of whether it would increase the legitimacy and accountability of local courts, many in the legislature will reject an amendment to the plan requiring all municipal justices to be lawyers. They will likely cite that local justices know their townspeople better than outsiders. The only real question should be whether they know the law.

Dante Dalgin, Class of 2023

Published on May 5, 2022 at 2:19 am