by Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge, State of New York
New Yorkers need a simple-to-navigate, equitably-structured court system that delivers first-class justice services to every litigant in every court—regardless of who they are or where they come from in life.
Over the last 22 months, the Bench and Bar have traveled a long and arduous road together. We have transformed and reinvented the ways in which we deliver our services in order to safely manage our workloads and ensure access to justice for all New Yorkers. In the New York State Courts, we have established a productive “new normal” that relies on our hybrid model of in-person and virtual court operations to deliver justice services to lawyers and litigants during the ongoing public health crisis. Furthermore, our court system has led the state in implementing important COVID preventative policies, such as the mandatory vaccination program for all judges and court staff that took effect last September. As a result, our court system is well-positioned to meet the evolving challenges of the pandemic and resume the forward progress of the “Excellence Initiative.” [Read more…] about Equal Justice Requires Simplification of the New York State Courts
Court simplification will remove the barriers that impact litigants, families, victims, local government, small business, lawyers, nonprofit organizations, judges and court personnel and anyone who uses the courts because it will integrate the courts in a way that eliminates the need to go to different courts for different yet related issues.