Chief Justice Janet DiFiore (Photo: David Handschuh/ALM)

Excluded from the state budget deal reached last week, Chief Judge Janet DiFiore's plan to revamp the state's trial court system by consolidating it into three tiers will have to wait longer for New York lawmakers' approval.

Court officials said they would pursue enactment of the reorganization blueprint later in this session.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo included court restructuring in a sprawling briefing book that outlined his state budget proposal and publicly backed DiFiore's plan at his annual State of the State address in January. 

By amending the state constitution, the plan would eliminate the state's 11 separate trial courts and replace it with a three-level structure. The court system has argued the changes would cut down costs to litigants and make courts easier to traverse.

Last week, state lawmakers green-lighted a litany of policy changes through this year's budget negotiations, including trims to the state's controversial bail reform law. Those changes came even as the coronavirus crisis loomed over the budget process and New York remained in the grips of the pandemic.

Lucian Chalfen, state court spokesman, confirmed that New York lawmakers did not pass the court reorganization proposal through this year's state budget negotiations. 

"We will definitely be following up with the legislature should they return before the session is over," he said in a statement.

The coronavirus crisis has upended normal business this session, but legislative leaders have expressed support for continuing their work in some fashion.

"I continue to remain hopeful that the Legislature will take this issue up this legislative session," said Hank Greenberg, president of the New York State Bar Association, which has long supported court consolidation. 

Cuomo's administration put forward the court reorganization proposal in the form of a concurrent resolution and not through one of the state's budget bills.

Constitutional amendments are rarely addressed through state budget negotiations, Greenberg said. Even though the governor is not required to sign off on concurrent resolutions, Cuomo's support for the proposal was an exciting boost for court reorganization supporters, he said.

The state Legislature would have to pass the measure twice before sending it to voters for approval. 

Last year, at a public hearing on the restructuring proposal, Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks leveled sharp criticism against the current court structure and said New York is home to the most "complicated, inefficient, outdated" trial court structure in the U.S.

"This is New York's court system. If this were a private sector organization organized by this, it wouldn't last six months," he said.

Marks told lawmakers that the current court structure makes it difficult—if not impossible—to move resources quickly to where they are most needed. That, he said, is a major factor in the delay in processing court cases. Those delays are bad for everyone, he said, such as an arrestee sitting in jail while waiting a trial or a small business that sees its attorney fees increase as a case languishes. 

The court system, he said, also can't address surges in cases under the current system, such as when a foreclosure crisis brought a wave of new cases. 

"This is not about what's good or bad for individual judges. It's not about parochial interests," he said. "It's about improving the justice system, improving the quality of service that we provide."

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