It can be a sign of strength to defer filing a lawsuit if doing so would weaken the position of judges who are advocating for a pay raise, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye has told the state’s judges in an e-mail communiqu�.

“I have no doubt that a lawsuit by me on behalf of the Unified Court System would not have helped us one whit had it already actually been brought,” she wrote in the memo. “Indeed, given these players, it would have damaged our cause.”