Judge Zayas on factors beyond court control causing case delays
Zayas details factors outside court control that delay cases: prosecution discovery timelines, defense review obligations, competency restoration waits, and private defense attorneys managing excessive caseloads without hiring associates.
It truly requires an all-hands-on-the-deck approach.
The simplest reason is that while we would like to believe that judges have the authority to make criminal cases proceed at whatever pace they choose, in actuality,
There are many factors that affect case processing that are beyond the court's control.
To list just a few, cases get delayed when it takes the prosecution months upon months to provide all of the discovery that the defense is entitled to under New York's robust discovery law.
Which sometimes results from the lack of effective coordination between prosecutors and the NYPD.
Cases get delayed because defense attorneys have a constitutional obligation to carefully review the discovery they receive.
Hundreds or even thousands of pages of police reports and medical records, along with the hours of body camera footage recorded by the officers who responded to the scene.
Cases get delayed when a defendant who has been found unfit to proceed must wait months.
Before they can begin receiving competency restoration services at an OMH hospital.
And perhaps most frustrating of all, cases are delayed when private defense attorneys have dozens of paying clients from across the city.
far more than a solo practitioner can reasonably manage, but choose not to hire associates to handle their caseload.
These are not excuses.
They are facts.
And if we're going to improve the case processing in a long-term, sustainable way, we need to be realistic about the myriad challenges.