Increases the number of judges in the second, ninth and eleventh districts; provides for additional family court judges in the city of New York and certain counties; provides for additional city and civil court judges in New York city.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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7534
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
June 4, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. HOYLMAN-SIGAL -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules
AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, the family court act, the New York
city criminal court act and the New York city civil court act, in
relation to increasing the number of judges in courts
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 140-a of the judiciary law, as amended by chapter
2 365 of the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 140-a. Number of supreme court justices in each judicial district.
4 The number of justices of the supreme court in each judicial district
5 shall be as follows:
6 1. First district, thirty-eight;
7 2. Second district, [fifty-two] fifty-three;
8 3. Third district, seventeen;
9 4. Fourth district, fourteen;
10 5. Fifth district, nineteen;
11 6. Sixth district, eleven;
12 7. Seventh district, twenty;
13 8. Eighth district, twenty-eight;
14 9. Ninth district, [thirty-three] thirty-four;
15 10. Tenth district, fifty-one;
16 11. Eleventh district, [forty-three] forty-four;
17 12. Twelfth district, twenty-nine;
18 13. Thirteenth district, nine.
19 No person may serve in the office of justice of the supreme court
20 unless he or she has been admitted to practice law in the state of New
21 York for at least ten years as of the date he or she commences the
22 duties of office.
23 § 2. Section 121 of the family court act, as amended by chapter 365 of
24 the laws of 2022, is amended to read as follows:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11653-02-3
S. 7534 2
1 § 121. Number of judges. The family court within the city of New York
2 shall consist of [sixty] sixty-three judges, effective January first,
3 two thousand [twenty-three] twenty-four. There shall be at least one
4 family court judge resident in each county of the city of New York.
5 § 3. Section 131 of the family court act is amended by adding a new
6 subdivision (w) to read as follows:
7 (w) There shall be an additional family court judge for each of the
8 following counties: Albany, Chemung, Erie, Monroe, Niagara, Oneida,
9 Onondaga, St. Lawrence, Suffolk, and Westchester. The compensation of
10 each such additional family court judge shall be the same as the compen-
11 sation paid to each existing family court judge in such county or, if
12 there is no separately-elected family court judge in such county, the
13 same as the compensation paid to a judge of the county court in such
14 county.
15 § 4. Section 20 of the New York city criminal court act, as amended by
16 chapter 500 of the laws of 1982, is amended to read as follows:
17 § 20. The court constituted. The criminal court of the city of New
18 York is hereby established as a single, city-wide court, as provided by
19 sections one and fifteen of article six of the constitution; it shall be
20 a part of the unified court system for the state, and a court of record
21 with such power and jurisdiction as are herein or elsewhere provided by
22 law. It shall consist of the number of justices of the court of special
23 sessions of the city of New York and magistrates of the city magis-
24 trates' courts of the city of New York authorized by law on the first
25 day of March, nineteen hundred sixty-two. Each of the justices of the
26 court of special sessions of the city of New York and each of the magis-
27 trates of the magistrates' courts of the city of New York in office on
28 the first day of September, nineteen hundred sixty-two shall, until the
29 last day of the year in which the term for which he was appointed would
30 otherwise have expired, be a judge of the criminal court of the city of
31 New York. In addition to the judges provided for herein, there shall be
32 [twenty-nine] thirty-one additional judges of the criminal court effec-
33 tive January first, two thousand twenty-four. Such additional judges
34 shall receive the same compensation as the existing judges of the crimi-
35 nal court the city of New York.
36 § 5. Section 102-a of the New York city civil court act is amended by
37 adding a new subdivision 2-a to read as follows:
38 2-a. Two additional judges of the civil court of the city of New York
39 shall be elected in and from the residents of the following counties in
40 the indicated numbers: from the county of New York, one; from the county
41 of Bronx, one. Such additional judges shall receive the same compen-
42 sation as the existing judges of the civil court of the city of New York
43 and shall be elected countywide within the city of New York.
44 § 6. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
45 the positions created by sections one, three and five of this act shall
46 be filled by election at the November 5, 2024 election, for a term to
47 commence on the first day of January 2025.
