Judgment rapped
Lawyers blast plan to quickly reopen courts
Legal defender services say a decision by the state’s judiciary to require some in-person court appearances next week unnecessarily endangers the health of lawyers, court officers and everyone else who works in city courthouses.
“We strongly oppose reopening for in-person appearances because it is not safe, and it is not essential to do so,” the legal groups said in a letter Wednesday to Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks.
The letter says the decision to reopen the courts is a “drastic change in plan,” and requires them to resume in-person court appearances months earlier than they expected.
Lucian Chalfen, the court system’s top spokesman, said the decision to partially reopen the courts was made with everybody’s safety in mind.
“Any suggestion that we would endanger the health and welfare of our employees, attorneys, litigants, defendants or the public is absurd. We are taking the most conservative, measured and deliberative approach to every action as we move to resume in-person court appearances,” Chalfen said.
Stan German, executive director of NYC Defender Services — one of the groups behind the letter to Marks — said court staff on all sides appeared to be on the same side safetywise until an email about the reopening landed in inboxes Monday night.
German noted that Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday extended a moratorium on rules meant to assure suspects’ rights to a speedy trial until at least August, further puzzling lawyers about what they see as a needless rush to reopen.
“There certainly isn’t any sense of urgency. It makes no sense,” he said.
Lauren Roberts, a 26-year veteran public defender who works for Legal Aid in the Bronx, said she believes Marks’ decision will spread coronavirus.
“This action is literally going to make us the next superspreaders, all of us — the lawyers, the court officers, the judges, the clients, the families. The extent of contact we have in a given day is going to be Cuomo’s worst nightmare since we flattened the curve,” she said.
“We are the second wave. So get ready.”
Legal advocates believe the judge’s decision to be a kneejerk response to numerous comments Mayor de Blasio made this week, attempting to pin blame on the courts for a rise in crime reported in the city.
“This is not business as usual,” de Blasio said Wednesday. “And it’s all underlined by all the problems created by the pandemic and the absence of the functioning court system.”
De Blasio’s spokesmen did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chalfen denied the decision had anything to do with the mayor’s accusations.
“This has got nothing to do with the mayor and his hamhanded way of trying to reassign blame,” he said.
Much court business has been handled remotely in the past few months. Since mid-March, over 60,000 cases have been heard citywide. Over 19,000 arraignments were handled in Manhattan. More than 34,000 other criminal proceedings and nearly 600 preliminary hearings in felony matters have also been handled, according to the Office of Court Administration.