NY State Senate Bill 2021-S5293

Senate Bill S5293

2021-2022 Legislative Session

Authorizes a program for electronic filing for commencement of civil actions and proceedings and service of papers in town and village courts

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 05, 2022	referred to judiciary
Mar 01, 2021	referred to judiciary

2021-S5293 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A6432
Current Committee:: Senate Judiciary
Law Section:: Civil Practice Law and Rules
Laws Affected:: Amd §2111, CPLR
Versions Introduced in 2023-2024 Legislative Session:: S2717, A2767

2021-S5293 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Authorizes the chief administrator of the courts to promulgate rules authorizing an electronic filing program for commencement of civil actions and proceedings and filing and service of papers in town and village courts.

2021-S5293 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S5293

SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to author-
izing a program for electronic filing for commencement of civil actions
and proceedings and service of papers in town and village courts

 
PURPOSE:

To permit electronic filing of civil actions and proceedings and service
of papers in town and village courts.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 adds town and village courts to the list of courts that may
accept electronic filing.

Section 2 is the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

New York has the largest concentration of attorneys in the United
States, with 179,600 registered attorneys, and 155,369 of those attor-
neys have addresses in the state. However, despite having 17% of the
population and 80% of the land space in the state, there are only 6,176
attorneys serving in the large swaths of rural New York, according to
attorney-registration data. In reality, the number of rural attorneys
that actually offer legal services to individual members of the public
is much smaller than that statistic indicates, since a sizable propor-
tion of these attorneys do not offer legal services to the general
public, such as district attorneys and members of the judiciary. This is
corroborated by data from rural county bars.

In many places in rural New York, attorneys and clients may be far
removed from their local town or village court as a result of the vast
areas that rural attorneys must cover. The requirement that the attorney
or complainant must appear in person to file civil complaints in town
and village courts is a large hurdle for rural New Yorkers, who may be
many miles from the court, and work during the day without any ability
to travel to the court in order to file.

This legislation has a twofold benefit for rural New Yorkers; first, it
allows easier access to the court system for remote New Yorkers, whether
they are attorneys, or non-attorneys. Second, allowing e-filing would
allow attorneys who are not physically present in the rural community to
serve the rural community remotely, keeping the cost to their clients
low by not having to bill for travel time and the time it takes to file
in-person. In sum, this bill allows for greater rural access to justice.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

No cost to the state.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.

2021-S5293 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   5293
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                               March 1, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  MAY  --  read  twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on Judiciary
 
 AN ACT to amend the civil practice law and rules, in relation to author-
   izing a program  for  electronic  filing  for  commencement  of  civil
   actions  and  proceedings  and  service  of papers in town and village
   courts

   THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND  ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section  1.  Subdivision (a) of section 2111 of the civil practice law
 and rules, as added by chapter 237 of the laws of 2015,  is  amended  to
 read as follows:
   (a)  Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the chief administra-
 tor of the courts, with the approval of the administrative board of  the
 courts, may promulgate rules authorizing a program in the use of facsim-
 ile  transmission  only  in  the court of claims and electronic means in
 TOWN COURTS, VILLAGE COURTS, the supreme court, the civil court  of  the
 city  of  New  York, surrogate's courts and the court of claims for: (i)
 the commencement of civil actions and proceedings, and (ii)  the  filing
 and  service  of  papers  in  pending actions and proceedings. Provided,
 however, the chief administrator shall consult with the county clerk  of
 a county outside the city of New York before the use of electronic means
 is  to  be authorized in the supreme court of such county, afford him or
 her the opportunity to submit comments with  respect  thereto,  consider
 any such comments and obtain the agreement thereto of such county clerk.
   §  2.  This  act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
 have become a law.
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD09908-01-1

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