VALENTINE’S DAY GIFT OF THE NEW YORK OFFICE OF COURT ADMINISTRATION “Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.” Albert Einstein “It is not a Justice System. It is just a system.” Bob Enyart On February 1, 2021 new rules went into place pursuant to an Administrative Order of Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks. Good luck finding it on the Office of Court Administration (OCA) website. It is not among the forty 2020-2021 Latest Administrative Orders listed but it is on the website somewhere. It was never published on the website before it went into effect. After all, it only applies twenty-nine new rules to every Supreme and County Court civil case in the state. In the most recent annual report of the court system that was only 535,681 cases per year. What is the big deal? If you do happen to find the Order, do not worry. The new rules are only 62 pages long! They contain some of the most time consuming and unnecessary changes to the practice of “civil” law in the State of New York. Want to know who will benefit to benefit from these rules? Among others, insurance defense attorneys, divorce lawyers and contract lawyers. Why? Because they bill by the hour and these rules significantly increase the time needed to bring any matter to Supreme and County Court for resolution. Want to know who will not benefit from the rules? Anyone who is seeking to resolve issues by coming to Supreme Court or County Court. The new rules amend 22 NYCRR 202. Here is a small sampling of what you have in store. OCA has found it important to rule that you be on time and be familiar with your case. Otherwise, you may be considered in default. 202.1(f)(g) As you know, for any motion related to disclosure, you are required to state you have conferred with opposing counsel “in a good faith effort to resolve the issues raised by the motion.” That is no longer good enough. Why trust attorneys? In your motion papers, you now must state that you conducted an in-person or telephonic conference. That is not all. You must also state the date and time of the conference, who participated and the length of time of the conference. Apparently, emails and letters do not count. As we know, judges tell juries the rules. For deliberations, jurors are told portions of the Pattern Jury Instructions sometimes altered for the proof of a particular case. That is the art and skill of being a judge. The courts also devise a series of questions for the jury to answer, i.e. causation, damages, etc. That is no longer the plan. While attorneys could always suggest the court tell the jury proposed instructions, it is now required. You now must “provide the court with case-specific requests to charge and proposed jury interrogatories.” Submissions must be by hard copy and electronically. When do you have to do this? That depends on which new rule you read. Rule 31(b) of 202.7(g) says, “at the pretrial conference or at such other time as the court may set.” Under new Rule 202.20(h), it is “on the first day of trial or at such other time as the court may set.” So, you tell me. And by the way, your pre-trial memorandum and request for a charge must only be in 12-point type in a Word document. That rule started March 1 and only applies to “non-paperless commercial parts,” whatever that is. As for other useless time-consuming rules, when every attorney in a proceeding receives a notification of a court appearance, he or she must notify all other parties by e-mail “that the matter is scheduled to be heard on that assigned date and time.” Why does every attorney in a case have to email the information to every other attorney? “There are occasions when the court's electronic or other notification system fails or occasions when a party fails to receive the court-generated notification.” So, get ready to receive the same message a lot and bill your client each time you read it. 202.23(b) How is your binder collection? On the first day of trial, you must submit “an indexed binder or notebook, or the electronic equivalent, of trial exhibits for the court's use.” I am not sure what an electronic equivalent of an indexed binder is, but you must also give a copy to each attorney in the trial. I presume that means no pro se litigants get one. You also need the originals in a similar binder or notebook for witnesses even if you do not have them as they are under subpoena. 202.20h(b) There are a bunch of other things that make little sense. You can only have ten depositions and each one cannot exceed seven hours. You need to submit a proposed order to the court with a motion. An affidavit is limited to 7,000 words and a reply affidavit is limited to 4,200. If you make a summary judgment motion you must have a “separate, short, concise” statement in numbered paragraphs of material facts to which there are no “genuine issues to be tried.” The responding papers must state the genuine issues to be tried in a short, concise, separate statement. I wonder what OCA considers short or concise. You get the idea. The pleasure of practicing trial law for lawyers, judges and staff comes from bringing people to a reasonable, timely resolution of a dispute with reasonable fees. The Office of Court Administration has a different approach. Unfortunately for litigants in New York State, in my opinion the legal fees and the time necessary to comply with these new rules will be significant for the million+ litigants affected annually. Predictably, the Chief Judge has extolled the virtues of the new rules, calling Chief Administrative Judge Marks “fantastic.” At least all those lawyers who show up late unfamiliar with their cases may diminish.