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The Impact of COVID-19 on the New York City Family Court: Recommendations on Improving Access to Justice for All Litigants

February 4, 2022 By moderncourts

In his recent report examining institutional racism in the New York State Court system, which had been requested by Chief Judge Janet M. DiFiore, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson singled out a handful of under-resourced trial courts throughout the state, including the Family Court, and concluded that “[t]he picture painted for us was that of a second-class system of justice for people of color in New York State.” Nowhere is this concept better demonstrated than in how the Family Court has fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. To be clear, the pandemic has been as unprecedented as it has been cruel, and nothing in this report should suggest that the Family Court reasonably could have met the challenges faced by litigants without, at least initially, some disruption of service. What followed from COVID-19, however, was a significant shutdown of service in the New York City Family Court for a large number of litigants for an extended period of time. In other words, our findings and recommendations are a product of the deep inequities in Family Court that this crisis has laid bare.

Read the Family Court COVID Work Group Report

Filed Under: News

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