December 14, 2006
Testimony of Daniel R. Murdock
Public Hearing on the State Justice Courts

[excerpt]
In New York ..."only the town and village Justice Courts are funded and administered by the sponsoring localities rather than the State, and thus operate without the comprehensive oversight of the New York State Judiciary and Office of Court Administration." Rather than being part of a single statewide trial court, the Justice Courts are, as the Action Plan aptly put it, "nearly 1,300 individually operated instrumentalities of government". And, finally, almost three-quarters of the justices are non-lawyers.

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