Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Case Processing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Chief Administrative Judge urges earlier discovery and stepped-up coordination to reduce pretrial jail stays
Summary
Judge Zayas told the City Council committee that discovery noncompliance, scheduling practices and interagency coordination are key drivers of pretrial delays; he highlighted scheduling orders, court-attorney conferences and e-filing as reforms and provided borough-level discovery timing figures.
New York — Chief Administrative Judge Zayas told the New York City Council Committee on Criminal Justice that speeding up criminal case processing will require cooperation from prosecutors, law enforcement and defense counsel, and pointed to slow discovery production as a principal cause of prolonged pretrial detention.
"If discovery were routinely produced in 20 or 25 days rather than 60 or 90 days, cases would be resolved much faster," Zayas said in testimony before the committee chaired by Council Member Silvina Brooks Powers. He described a set of court-driven measures — scheduling orders, mandatory court-attorney conferences and expanded nonjudicial staffing — intended to shorten the path from arrest to disposition.
The judge said those steps have shown promising results in pilot sites. He told the committee that Brooklyn, where scheduling orders and an executive assistant district attorney attending conferences were piloted, saw a roughly 15% increase in dispositions in the pilot parts. He also reported that citywide dispositions increased by about 10% last year and that the courts’ year-to-date clearance rate is roughly 125%.
Zayas urged earlier and piecemeal production of discovery materials so defense counsel can review documents and footage well before trial or plea negotiations. He gave the committee borough-level averages and medians for how long it takes prosecutors to file a certificate of compliance with discovery: Bronx — about 130 average days (112 median); Kings (Brooklyn) — about 74 average days (56 median); New York County — about 145 average days (105 median); Queens — about 60 average days (44 median); Richmond — about 46 average days (28 median). He cautioned these figures exclude the most complex cases such as homicides.
On judicial tools, Zayas recommended empowering judges to set firmer trial calendars and to be more proactive in resolving discovery disputes, while acknowledging the limits of judicial authority when one party says it is "not ready." He also highlighted recent administrative moves to add project directors, case managers and court attorneys and to roll out electronic filing in the city’s supreme courts.
Council members used questioning to press Zayas for more data and for specifics about how the Office of Court Administration will ensure compliance. Chair Brooks Powers said the committee would follow up with district attorneys, who were unable to appear at the hearing, and requested that Zayas provide a county-by-county breakdown of discovery compliance as well as data on sanctions for late production if available.
The committee is expected to invite prosecutors to a subsequent hearing to discuss why certificates of compliance are often filed well after statutory deadlines and what steps prosecutors will take to change that practice.
— Reporting by the Committee Hearing record. All quotes attributed to speakers in the committee record.
