New York justice courts

While justices and their court clerks receive training from OCA, there is tremendous variability in how cases are handled.

In some small towns the caseload is extremely light, and a court might meet once a month and have only a few cases.

All criminal prosecutions that occur in towns and villages are commenced in a justice court.

[1] In 2006, The New York Times published an article documenting serious legal abuses in many of the state's justice courts.

People have been denied the right to a trial, an impartial judge and the presumption of innocence."