Bench and Bar United on Need To Simplify New York’s Court Structure

I am pleased to join Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks and Presiding Justices Rolando T. Acosta, Alan D. Scheinkman, Elizabeth A. Garry and Gerald J. Whalen—the senior leaders of our Judiciary—in addressing the most important issue for the future of our justice system: amending Article VI of the New York State Constitution to simplify our inefficient, outdated trial court structure.

The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) was formed in 1876 with the express mission of eliminating inefficiencies and abuses in our courts. Since that time, NYSBA has been our steadfast partner in fostering the fair and efficient administration of justice. Our historic partnership has only grown stronger in the last four years under the Excellence Initiative. During that time, thanks to the hard work and commitment of judges, court staff and the Bar, we have made significant progress to improve the courts’ productivity and operational efficiency, as evidenced by dramatic reductions in case backlogs all across the state.  And now that we have begun institutionalizing early presumptive ADR into our civil case management processes statewide, we expect to make additional progress toward our shared imperative of providing fair, timely and affordable justice to the millions of people we serve.