As a great song writer wrote, “the times they are a-changin’,” and like anything else we must change with them. The change discussed in this article has, like most, been occurring over a period of several years. I am referring to the practice of law and administration of justice in the town and village justice courts of our state. These courts are in desperate need of reform and support. The town and village justice courts are the backbone of the criminal justice system in the geographic majority of our state. Most criminal cases outside of the cities come before them.
For those of us who practice in the criminal justice system in the cities, particularly the five boroughs of the City of New York, the practice of law is quite different; for example, defendants are never arraigned without counsel and defendants are held in centralized holding facilities pending arraignment. Although the majority of the criminal cases pending in our state are in the cities, the laws and protections afforded defendants in a criminal case are no different in the towns and villages; at least they should not be.
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