Judge Zayas on assigned counsel plan and $50 million funding gap
Zayas highlights a NYC Bar Association report finding the Assigned Counsel Plan is understaffed and under-resourced, with MOCJ failing to access over $50 million allocated since 2018, and urges the new mayoral administration to address this.
The defense bar, too, is essential to improving case processing efficiency.
Private attorneys assigned as counsel to represent criminal.
defendants pursuant to county law 18B, basically we're talking about 18B attorneys, consistently litigate around 50% of the cases that go to trial in New York City.
But as a recent report from the New York City Bar Association highlighted, the New York City assigned counsel plan
administration is understaffed and under-resourced and is thus unable to provide panel attorneys with the support that they need.
In fact, according to the Bar Association's report, since 2018, the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice has failed to access over $50 million
that Indigent Legal Services has allocated to the New York City Assigned Counsel Plan under two separate contracts.
I hope and I expect that the new mayoral administration will work quickly to address these issues.