|
April 2, 2012
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT VINCENT E.
DOYLE SAYS BUDGET PROTECTS JUDICIARY AND LEGAL SERVICES FOR THE
POOR
The approved state budget maintains funding for the courts, increases
support for legal services for the poor and provides state judges with
their first salary increase in 13 years, New York State Bar President
Vincent E. Doyle III said today.
“The Legislature and Governor Cuomo recognize that despite hard
economic times, the doors of our courthouses must be open to all New
Yorkers,” said Doyle of Buffalo (Connors & Vilardo).
“Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman has risen to the challenge of
restraining spending despite growing demands on the courts.”
“Regrettably, the budget diverts $4.1 million from the Indigent
Legal Services Fund to support programs that, while worthy, are
more appropriately funded from other sources,” Doyle
said.
Overall Judiciary budget
The Legislature approved the $2.3 billion budget submitted by Chief
Judge Lippman, who had proposed a year-to-year spending reduction of $4
million. In contrast, the Judiciary budget enacted last year cut $170
million from Lippman’s original request.
“The Judiciary will be working with a bare-bones budget. We
have confidence that Judge Lippman will be able to contain spending with
operational changes that will reap savings for years to come,”
Doyle said.
“However, we remain concerned about the long-term, cumulative
impact of budgetary constraints on the judicial system,” Doyle
said.
In January, the State Bar issued a report on the impact of past
budget cuts. Those impacts included delays in resolving emergency child
custody cases, disruption of criminal and civil trials because of early
court closings, and extended timeframes for scheduling civil and
criminal trials. Link: www.nysba.org/CourtFundingReport.
“Adequate funding of our courts is
essential,” said Doyle, adding, “We will continue to monitor
court funding to ensure that New Yorkers have access to
justice.”
Legal services for the
poor
The budget includes increases for indigent legal services in criminal
and civil matters.
• Indigent defense: Criminal
defendants who cannot afford an attorney have the right to counsel under
the U.S. and state constitutions. The new budget includes $81 million
for indigent defense services, an increase of $4 million for county
programs. The budget also contains a provision that provides upstate
caseload relief.
In a last-minute deal, budget negotiators diverted $4.1 million from
the Indigent Legal Services Fund: $2 million to pay for DNA testing; and
$2 million for the New York State Defenders Association, which
previously was funded with a General Fund appropriation.
The Office of Indigent Legal Services will receive $1.5 million to
support the fair and efficient operation of the state public defense
system.
• Civil legal services: At the
request of Chief Judge Lippman, the Judiciary budget provides $25
million to fund civil legal services, an increase of $12.5 million. This
will provide attorneys for low-income people facing serious civil legal
problems, such as the breakup of a family, apartment eviction, home
foreclosure and denial of social service benefits.
• The Judiciary budget also earmarks $15 million to rescue
the Interest on Lawyer Account Fund (IOLA), which uses interest
collected on attorney escrow accounts to finance grants to providers of
civil legal services. Low interest rates and sluggish real estate sales
have caused IOLA funds to plummet in recent years.
Judicial compensation
New York’s judges will receive their first pay raise since
1999. They will get a 17 percent increase this year, the first
phase of a 27 percent increase over three years.
“Judicial salaries have been frozen for 13 years, which has
prompted some experienced judges to leave the bench,” Doyle noted.
“Let’s hope that the long-overdue increase sends a positive
message to current and future judges.”
DNA expansion
Earlier this month, the governor signed into law a measure that
expands the state DNA database and gives criminal defendants greater
access to that database before and after trial. The State Bar supported
these measures as important tools to improve the criminal justice
system.
“We now urge lawmakers to continue on this positive path and
enact additional reforms to ensure innocent people are not wrongfully
convicted and the guilty are brought to justice,” Doyle said.
Among those proposed reforms: requiring the videotaping of custodial
interrogations to reduce false confessions; altering the way police
lineups are conducted to lessen the risk of false eyewitness
identifications; and reducing the discretion of prosecutors to withhold
evidence potentially favorable to the defense.
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the nation. It was founded in
1876.
| 
News Center
