Temporarily laid off judges to get back pay under new law
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Governor Kathy Hochul last week signed a bill into law that requires the Office of Court Administration to repay 15 Supreme Court justices for a five and a half month period in which they were temporarily laid off. Photo via the governor’s office/Flickr
By Jacob Kaye
As a result of a recently passed bill signed into law by the governor, over a dozen senior judges throughout New York State will soon be repaid for a multi-month period in 2022 in which they were temporarily laid off.
Aiming to make the 15 judges who were briefly let go from the bench whole, Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bill from State Senator Jamaal Bailey and State Assemblymember Jeffrey Dinowitz last week.
The bill, which was passed by a unanimous vote in the legislature after being introduced only a couple of weeks before, allows for the 15 judges to receive salary and pension benefits for the time period between Jan. 1, 2021 and June 14, 2021.
The brief period of unemployment for the judges came after a controversial decision by the Office of Court Administration to deny recertification to nearly 50 senior judges amid an alleged budget crunch brought on by the pandemic.
“It's a matter of equity and fairness,” Dinowitz told the Eagle in June after the bill’s passage. “It's really meant to just balance things out.”
In the fall of 2020, the Administrative Board of the Courts, which is comprised of the chief judge and the presiding justices of the Appellate Divisions, decided not to recertify 46 of the 49 judges over the age of 70 looking to serve an additional two years on the bench.
The decision, court leaders said, was rooted in what was believed to be a precarious financial future brought on by the pandemic.
However, the courts’ fiscal outlook quickly changed, and court officials invited the judges to reapply for certification, an offer only half of the laid off judges took up.
Ultimately, of those who reapplied, only 15 went on to rejoin the judiciary.
The legislation will require that the Office of Court Administration pay the judges for the nearly six months in which they were not on the bench.
Under the bill, OCA would also be required to cover the costs of the judges’ pension payments during that time period. It would also require the New York state and local employees’ retirement system to reinstate the justices and to adjust their seniority and credit.
For the judges who began to draw from their pension accounts in the months that they were unemployed, the comptroller would be authorized to “waive the payment of interest” for those judges, according to the legislation.
In total, the law is expected to cost OCA around $2 million.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesperson for OCA, told the Eagle that the office was still reviewing the legislation and that it had yet to work out how and when the judges will be repaid.
Nonetheless, Chalfen said the office was and is in support of the legislation.
“We are pleased that these impacted justices, who through no fault of their own, were not compensated for the approximately 5 ½ month period indicated in the bill, be made whole in terms of their salary and pension,” Chalfen said.
Justice Mary M. Farley, the president of the Association of Justices of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, also celebrated the legislation being signed into law.
“We are grateful the legislature passed, and the governor signed into law, the measure designed to correct the wrong done to some of our most experienced and knowledgeable justices in 2020 when OCA refused to grant individualized consideration of their requests for ‘certification’ as outlined in Article 6 of the state Constitution,” Farley said.
“Under new leadership of the courts, it is our belief this unfortunate and unnecessary situation will not be repeated in the future,” Farley added.
The recertification saga, which began in the fall of 2020, marked a turning point in then-Chief Judge Janet DiFiore’s relationship with the state’s judges and court employees.
The 2020 austerity measure was heavily criticized by members of the judiciary, as well as court staff, attorneys and others working within the courts. Some said that the move was both unnecessary and would cause harm at a time the courts’ backlogs were only worsening.
In New York State, judges must apply for recertification every two years beginning at age 70 – they are required to retire at 76.
Prior to 2020, few judges were denied recertification. Under the state’s judiciary law, judges need only meet two qualifications in order to be recertified – they have to be proven to be mentally and physically fit, and there is required to be a proven need for them on the bench.
The Administrative Board of the Courts, however, maintains discretion over which judges do or do not get recertified.
In 2021 and 2022, legislative efforts were made to eliminate the board’s discretion over recertification applications and make the process more pro forma.
According to the legislation introduced by Dinowtiz, rather than make their appeal to the Administrative Board of the Courts, the judges would automatically be recertified if they proved they were mentally and physically fit and if there was a need for them on the bench.
Hochul pocket vetoed the bill at the start of 2022 and then outright vetoed it at the start of 2023 after being passed by the legislature both years.
