Councilmember Morano questions judge assignments and criminal law experience
Morano raises concerns about civil court judges without criminal law experience being assigned to criminal court, especially arraignment parts. Zayas says criminal law experience is weighted heavily and such assignments only happen when no other option exists.
One thing that I think Staten Islanders who, and Manhattanites, for instance, may share the same objection is that someone who's elected
as a civil court judge on Staten Island because of their expertise in criminal court, in civil court issues and things like that, ends up hearing criminal cases in Manhattan.
The Manhattanite who ends up appearing before this judge may not be voting for that person and may not want them deciding cases.
And the Staten Islander that elected a civil court judge may not want that person hearing criminal concerns.
And one concern I hear from practitioners is that not every judge assigned to criminal court has substantial criminal law experience or even sought that assignment.
How does OCA determine who serves in criminal court, particularly in arraignment parts where judges make critical release decisions?
Should criminal law experience receive greater weight in those assignments?
Yes, absolutely.
So, yeah, and they do.
But the question is, what do we do when we don't have enough criminal law?
Experienced lower court judges to sit in those parts.
So I think most recently a civil court judge in Staten Island was elected, but that civil court judge had
criminal law experience, was a former prosecutor or defense attorney, and naturally that's where we put him, not in civil court, but in criminal.
I will say this.
I was a practitioner for nine years doing exclusively criminal cases, and I then got hired as a law clerk and then did exclusively civil cases.
Smart lawyers can make that adjustment.
And so, and I'm not saying this, you know, criminal law is, you know, rocket science, but I think that people who practice law can make that adjustment, you know, that we typically would assign a mentor to those.
And it's only done, so we would only put a civil court judge who has no criminal law experience in a criminal part when there is no
other option.
So for example, in typically in these transition years when a new mayor comes into office,
there is a shortage of judges because that new mayor now has to create a new committee and has to vet the applicants.
And so there's always this sort of one-year delay where we're short on judges.
And so that might happen mostly in those transition years after a new mayor is elected.