Blog

February 18, 2014

It is Time to End the Delay and Increase the Number of Family Court Judges Today!

The Family Court is severely short of resources, particularly judicial resources. To try to address this, the Judiciary budget requests additional funding, including the resources for 20 new Family Court Judgeships throughout the State.

CCC and the Fund for Modern Courts are working together to Chair the New York State Coalition for More Family Court Judges. The Coalition is working to ensure that Governor Cuomo and State Legislators make adding at least 20 Family Court Judges a priority in the upcoming State Budget and legislative session.

Know the Facts

Statewide there are only 153 Family Court Judges to handle nearly 700,000 court filings. New York City has been limited to 47 Family Court Judges since 1991, handling almost 250,000 new filings annually.
In federal reviews of the foster care system, New York ranks 50th (out of 52 ranked states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico) in time to reunification and adoption.
In NYC, the average Family Court Judge caseload is 1,533 cases per year. This gives a Judge 52 minutes per case each year.

YOU can be a part of the solution

Tell Governor Cuomo and Legislative Leaders in Albany that they must take action to increase the number of Judges this legislative session
Join the Coalition! (It is easy – email Stephanie Gendell with the name and contact of your organization)
Follow CCC and the new Coalition on Facebook and Twitter…and don’t forget to do your own tweets and posts:
- Facebook: NYS Coalition for More Family Court Judges 2014
- Twitter: @MoreNYFamJudges; Hashtags: #MoreFamJudges or #20MoreFamJudges

New York’s children and families deserve better! New York’s most vulnerable children depend on the Family Courts for some of the most important decisions about their lives. Despite the tremendous efforts made by Family Court Judges and court staff, there are simply not enough resources for the courts to process cases timely.

Sadly, this crisis has gone on for decades, and it has been exacerbated by cuts made in recent years.

The time is now to invest in the Family Court system throughout the state.