Bill Aims to Exclude Non-Lawyers From Judicial Posts in 'High-Volume' Village and Town Courts (New York Law Journal)

“The potential deprivation of liberty is so serious that you can’t go in front of a judge in a criminal matter without an attorney,” Ryan noted. “So how come the judge doesn’t need to be an attorney?”

He called this a two-tiered, yet unequal justice system, since the 1,300 OCA judges spanning family, city, county, and state supreme courts, and the Court of Appeals, are all required to be attorneys, and under the direction of the chief judge.

Ryan said that between 2018 and 2019, the justice courts oversaw 200,000 criminal arraignments. 

“So the legislation is a step in the right direction,” he said. “It’ll make a big difference for the thousands of defendants who appear in these courts every year. They’ll have the solace to know they’re appearing in front of a judge who has three years of training, is a lawyer admitted to the bar and has five years experience practicing law, and most importantly, is bound by the judicial code of ethics.”