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Suit claims NY courts fail poor
BY VALERIE BAUMAN The Associated Press

The NYCLU. “Justice should not depend on your zip code or the size of your wallet.”
   The class action suit claims the state has failed to provide sufficient funding, oversight and standards for the court system, which has resulted in unfair convictions, longer sentences and absent attorneys.
   The suit cites plaintiffs in Onondaga, Ontario, Schuyler, Suffolk and Washington counties, but Lieberman said they represent a larger problem across the state.
   Court-appointed lawyers are
   The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the state Thursday, claiming flaws in the court system violate the state constitution and the Sixth Amendment by preventing the poor from getting adequate legal representation.
   “Every day, in courtrooms throughout the state, New Yorkers are denied justice simply because they are poor,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of overwhelmed by huge caseloads and operating with staff and resource shortages, she said.
   In some cases, defendants have appeared in court on criminal charges without attorneys and have been sent to jail without bail, she said. Some defendants may plead guilty or make other legal decisions they would avoid with legitimate advice, she said.
   Officials at Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s office said they had not had a chance to review the lawsuit.
   “We regret the filing of the case,” spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said in a written statement. “In practical terms, it now means that no legislative solution will be possible until the litigation is resolved. So in terms of problem solving, this is a step backwards.”
   NYCLU representatives said the public defenders and local court systems shouldn’t be blamed for the problems. Instead, the state should take responsibility, said NYCLU staff attorney Corey Stoughton.
   The state’s 62 counties spent a total of $264 million last year on public defense and the state contributed about $67.8 million, Gordon said. He said he expects the state contribution to increase to $72 million in the current fiscal year.
   The state Division of Criminal Justice Services also contributed $11.2 million to the court system last year and this year.
   David Bookstaver, a spokesman for the state Unified Court System, said he could not comment on pending litigation, but said the state has spent $10 million this year on improving the town and village court systems.
   “We are aware of some of the issues in the town and village courts,” Bookstaver said. “We have been, for the past year, taking measures to address them.”
   Among those efforts is enhanced and more comprehensive training and the addition of tape recorders for town and village courts to establish records of all proceedings, he said. The state has also appointed supervising judges to oversee town and village courts around the state.
   The supervising judges will not operate as a disciplinary body, but will be there to resolve issues as they come up from anyone involved: defendants, defense lawyers, prosecutors or judges.
   A report released last year by the Commission on the Future of Indigent Defense Services found that New York’s defense system for the poor is underfunded, has no uniform standards governing the operation of defense services and no competence standards for lawyers.
   Led by Chief Judge Judith Kaye, the commission also found that appointed defense attorneys are overworked and rarely meet with clients outside of a courtroom, giving prosecutors great advantages at trial.

MIKE GROLL/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Donna Lieberman, left, and Corey Stoughton of the New York Civil Liberties Union appear during a news conference outside the Court of Appeals in Albany on Thursday