Our allegiance to the rule of law requires, among other things, adherence to the principle of transparency. That is why I have proudly endeavored to periodically report to the Bar and the public on the state of the First Department, including our productivity and major changes to the Court. This is perhaps even more important today, given the challenging times we are living through. Indeed, insofar as we transitioned to a virtual court model last spring and are currently shifting to a hybridized virtual and in-person model for the fall, I feel strongly that readers deserve to know the status of our Court's capacity, workload, and physical structure.  

Over the past few years, our Court has been more productive than ever before, and the statistics from 2019 and the first half of 2020 again show historic levels of efficiency. In fact, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, our Court has reduced the number of pending appeals (cases that have been argued but not yet decided) to zero for the first time in our history. However, a consequence of the pandemic, in addition to the tragic human toll it has taken, is that we currently have a record number of perfected appeals for the September term. This has required us to develop some creative solutions, as described below and in yesterday's announcement on our website (https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/AD1).