Articles Posted in The Documents Corner

The following are links to State of New York Annual Reports of the Chief Administrator of the Courts, beginning with the Report for 2004. The most recent report available at this initial posting is for 2006. It is our intention to post subsequent reports as they become available.

The annual reports of the Chief Administrator of the New York Unified Court System, which are submitted to the Governor and the Legislature in accordance with Section 212 of the Judiciary Law, reflect the activities of the Unified Court System (UCS) of the State of New York for the year reported.

Included in these reports are significant statistical data, an outline of court structure, highlights of the court system’s initiatives–borth administrative and programmatic–and a summary of the legislative agenda of UCS for the year reported.

Judith S. Kaye, chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, has been selected as the recipient of the Fifth Annual Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence. Chief Judge Kaye was chosen by a three-member panel: JudgeEllen Rosenblum, Oregon Court of Appeals; Judge Lorenzo Arredondo, Lake Circuit Court for Indiana; and Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, Jr., Louisiana Supreme Court. The Award will be presented later this year.

Press Release: New York Chief Judge Judith Kaye to Receive Fifth Annual Dwight Opperman Award

New York Governor David Paterson said yesterday May 29, 2008 that in the interests of firness and legal liability he is directing all state agencies to immediately recognize as valid same-sex-marriages solemized outside the State of New York. The Governor said that “if I didn’t take this action I would be open to monetary damages and I would be discriminating against individuals who are coming here from other jurisdictions who are allowed the right [to marry] …and are suddenly denied that right.”

Governor Paterson’s counsel David Nocenti prepared a memorandum dated May 14 in which he advised counsels of all state agencies in which he warned that agencies could be exposing themselves to legal liability if the Governor’s directive is not followed.

To see Mr. Nocenti’s May 14 memorandum click on the link below:

An Introduction*

David Badertscher

How trustworthy are state-level primary legal resources on the Web? The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) published the State-by-State Report on Authentication of Online Legal Resources (Authentication Report) that answers this very important and timely question. The comprehensive report examines and draws conclusions from the results of a state survey that investigated whether government-hosted legal resources on the Web are official and capable of being considered authentic. The survey was conducted by the Access to Legal Information Committee of AALL. For a quick overview, the Authentication Report’s Executive Summary provides an excellent introduction to some of the underlying issues and facts surrounding the pressing and timely issue of the authenticity of state primary digital legal materials.

As reported in an article by Mark Hamblett in the May 1 New York Law Journal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed a suit by New York City attempting to hold gun manufactures liable for the flow of illegal arms into the city. In its ruling on April 30 the Second Circuit upheld an act of congress (The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act) that insulated gun manufacturers from liability “…while upholding that New York’s public nuisance law does not fint into an exception in the act”. To see the opinion and related documents from Findlaw click on the link below:

CITY OF NEW YORK V. BERETTA U.S.A. CORP., ET AL.
(U.S. 2nd Cir., April 30, 2008) –

From: Vesselin, Mitev and Daniel Wise. ” Kaye Writes Governor To Deny Work ‘Slowdown’ “, New York Law Journal, April 30, 2008. p. 1,6.

“Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye wrote Governor David A. Paterson yesterday to assure him that reports of judicial “slowdown” were ‘without basis.’ ”

“In addition, the court system’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics issued an opinion Monday determining that Chief Judge Kaye’s recent lawsuit to compel an increase in judicial salaries does not require judges to recuse themselves, but they may do so as a matter of individual conscience….”

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