New York State Bar Association Joins Legislators Calling for Increased Funding of Family Courts
2.12.2024
New York State Bar Association President Richard Lewis joined lawmakers calling for an increase in funding for New York’s Family Courts to address a crisis in the courts affecting children, parents and caregivers.
He joined the chairs of the state Senate and Assembly Judiciary and Children and Families committees, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, and Assembly Members Charles Levine, Jabari Brisport and Andrew Hevesi at a Capitol news conference. Lewis says Family Court is chronically overburdened and under-resourced.
“When you have to wait three months, six months or more to have your case heard, it rips apart families,” he said. “It does irreparable harm to the children, it does irreparable harm to the parents.”
The Covid pandemic only made the problem worse, creating a crushing backlog of cases, Lewis said.
“A shortage of Family Court judges is harming ordinary New Yorkers. The cases decided in Family Court have a lasting impact on the lives of children and their parents,” he said. “New Yorkers need and deserve a Family Court system that is effective and efficient – one that meets their legal, emotional, and social needs.”
The increase in funds would support expanding parent and child representation, adding more family court judges, increasing assigned counsel pay rates, and securing supervised visitation throughout the state. As revealed in a 2023 joint public hearing of the Senate Judiciary and Children and Families committees, the New York Family Court system is in dire need of additional funding in order to adequately serve New Yorkers in need.
Watch video of the news conference and Richard Lewis’ remarks here.
