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If the Legislature won't give the judiciary a raise, then the judiciary will legislate from the bench to submit legislation that would give themselves annual pay raises through cost-of-living adjustments, Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye said in her annual state of the judiciary address.
"If our current plight proves anything, it's that we need to put an end to a system that requires our judges, every five, or six, or seven, or eight, or soon nine years, hat in hand, on bended knee, to beg and plead even for cost of living increases", Kaye said.
"I have never known the frustration, or the despair, that I now see among my colleagues - and understandably so. They are demoralized not only by inaction on our compensation, which would be bad enough, but also by the fact that our interests are used to promote other agendas in Albany. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong." http://www.courts.state.ny.us/admin/stateofjudiciary/soj2007.pdf
The legislation that Kaye says the judiciary will submit would create a mechanism for annual COLAs for officials in all branches of state government and Kaye said she would seek "justice for the judges". She said wanted to "assure that, in New York, the noble ideal of justice remains a reality".
She had made judicial pay raises a priority last year too but the Legislature found that other issues were more pressing.
She advocates that the judiciary establish a temporary state commission to establish annual salary adjustments which automatically go into effect each year. She called these automatic pay raises for government officials to be "fair, simple and transparent".
Kaye also supports the court restructuring proposal advocated by a commission on the future of the courts which claims that the implementation of its proposals would save the state $500 million. http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reports/courtsys-4future_2007.pdf
The proposal recommends that the Supreme Court, Court of Claims, County Courts, Family Courts and Surrogates Courts become a single Supreme Court with six divisions: Family, Commercial, Public Claims, Criminal, Probate and General. The new District Court would include the Civil and Criminal Courts in New York City, the Nassau and Suffolk District Courts and the 61 City Courts outside New York City. Such restructuring would require a constitutional amendment.
She supports a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the constitutional cap on the number of Supreme Court justices that can be created by the Legislature. The pool of justices eligible for the Appellate Division would be expanded to all judges in the new Supreme Court. A new fifth Appellate Division department would be created but there is no delineation of the boundaries.
The chief judge also wants the judiciary to become even more omnipotent and controlling, advocated that the courts take over the probation system. She says that the judges have a vested interest in making sure probation works.
"The judicial branch would assume the probation oversight and funding functions currently carried out by the executive branch while leaving untouched local governmental control over day-to-day delivery of probation services", Kaye says.
http://www.courts.state.ny.us/reports/future-probation_2007.pdf
Kaye also announced plans to create a new family law center in New York City which presumably would make non-contested divorce faster and cheaper. The chief judge also continued to support no-fault divorce, an idea and concept which isn't shared by the Legislature.
The center would serve all five boroughs and would serve as a pilot project on alternative approaches to divorce. It does not require legislative approval and is scheduled to open in Manhattan later this year. 2-27-07
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© 2007 North
Country Gazette
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