Or take the example of a car accident on a State highway that can spawn lawsuits both in the Court of Claims, where only the State can be sued, and the Supreme Court, where damages and cross-claims involving other parties can be litigated. Try explaining that to an injured plaintiff and you'll understand why reform has been so persistently advocated. The New York State courts expect to receive close to four million new filings this year. We work hard to use the resources we have as sensibly as we can to manage this huge and ever-changing docket. The current patchwork system cuts against our efforts.
Artificial boundaries limit our ability to deploy judges and staff to where they're most needed.
Arbitrary restrictions force us to improvise second-best solutions such as borrowing judges from one overworked court to meet the exigencies of another. By a sensible, straightforward two-tier trial court system. The first would be the Supreme Court, the general trial court of unlimited jurisdiction, with divisions for criminal, commercial, family, probate and public claims matters. The second tier would be the District Court, which would hear matters now heard by the New York City Criminal and Civil Courts, the Nassau and Suffolk County District Courts and the 61 upstate City Courts. The Civil Court, as you know, includes the Housing Part, which disposes of hundreds of thousands of matters annually yet isn't even a constitutional court.