Senate Bill S968

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S968

SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the New York city civil court act, in relation to
requiring certain civil court documents to be provided to parties in
their native language

 
PURPOSE:

This legislation would require that parties in proceedings before New
York City Civil Court who are not fluent in English be provided court
papers and court stipulations in their own native language.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

  Section 1 adds a new Section 2105 to the New York City Civil Court Act
requiring  that  parties in proceedings before New York City Civil Court
who are not fluent in English be provided with the opportunity to obtain
court orders and any other court documents in their own native language.
Such court orders  and  documents  can  include  stipulations  directing
              

action  to  be  taken or forborne by either of such parties and shall be
provided to such parties in their own native language. All parties shall
demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the court,  their  comprehension  of
the nature and effect of each such court order or stipulation. To ensure
that  such  court  papers  are  accurate  in a non-English language, the
person who drafts such papers, shall provide the court with the document
in English and the other language, and certify that they both  documents
accurately reflect the decision of the court.

  Section 2 is the effective Date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

With  the  largest concentration of limited English speakers in New York
State, the City of New York is home to 1.8 million people who face ongo-
ing language barriers as they seek to navigate  their  way  through  the
court system. The New York City Civil Court system is an extraordinarily
busy court system with a total caseload of many hundreds of thousands of
cases  each year. Each one of those actions can have a major impact upon
the quality of life of the litigating parties. Hence,  it  is  essential
for  our  civil  court  system to be administered in an equitable manner
that fairly administers justice to all parties  -  regardless  of  their
language skills or fluency in English.

It  is  essential  that all parties to stipulations fully understand the
potential consequences of their actions before entering into an enforce-
able agreement that could dramatically affect their lives.  This  legis-
lation  builds  upon  the  intent  of current state and federal policies
designed to ensure that witnesses and parties in court babes have access
to  translators  as  needed  so  they  can  effectively  participate  in
proceedings.  It  closes  an existing loophole by specifically requiring
the translation of stipulations and recognizes  the  growing  linguistic
diversity of the residents of New York State's largest municipality.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2021-22: Referred to Judiciary
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This Act shall take effect on the 180th day after enacted into law.