STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 9855--A IN SENATE June 5, 2024 ___________ Introduced by Sen. SCARCELLA-SPANTON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Rules -- commit- tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom- mitted to said committee AN ACT to amend the family court act and the New York city civil court act, in relation to increasing the number of judges in certain courts The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 121 of the family court act, as amended by chapter 2 749 of the laws of 2023, is amended to read as follows: 3 § 121. Number of judges. The family court within the city of New York 4 shall consist of sixty-three judges, effective January first, two thou- 5 sand [twenty-four] twenty-five. There shall be at least one family court 6 judge resident in each county of the city of New York; provided, howev- 7 er, that there shall be at least three family court judge residents in 8 the county of Richmond. 9 § 2. Section 102-a of the New York city civil court act is amended by 10 adding a new subdivision 2-b to read as follows: 11 2-b. Fifteen additional judges of the civil court of the city of New 12 York shall be elected in and from the residents of the following coun- 13 ties in the indicated numbers: from the county of New York, three; from 14 the county of Bronx, three; from the county of Kings, three; from the 15 county of Queens, three; and from the county of Richmond, three. Such 16 additional judges shall receive the same compensation as the existing 17 judges of the civil court of the city of New York and shall be elected 18 countywide within the city of New York. 19 § 3. Section 131 of the family court act is amended by adding a new 20 subdivision (x) to read as follows: 21 (x) There shall be an additional family court judge for each of the 22 following counties: Cayuga, Chenango, Cortland, Erie, Jefferson, Rensse- 23 laer, Rockland and Westchester. Moreover, there shall be two additional 24 family court judges from the county of Suffolk and there shall be two 25 additional family court judges from the county of Nassau. The compen- 26 sation of each such additional family court judge shall be the same as EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD15854-02-4
S. 9855--A 2 1 the compensation paid to each existing family court judge in such county 2 or, if there is no separately-elected family court judge in such county, 3 the same as the compensation paid to a judge of the county court in such 4 county. 5 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately, provided, however, that 6 the positions created by sections two and three of this act shall be 7 filled by election at the November 5, 2024 election, for a term to 8 commence on the first day of January, 2025, as if such vacancy occurred 9 on the effective date of this act. Party nominations shall be made as 10 provided for in section 6-116 and 6-158 of the election law, and the 11 independent nominations shall be made as provided for by subdivision 10 12 of section 6-158 of the election law.