Queens Criminal Court set to debut NYC’s new paperless records system

Queens Criminal Court Jeffrey Gershuny piloted the new paperless records system. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

By David Brand

New York City’s criminal courts are going paperless, with Queens piloting the new virtual records program. 

Starting Monday, Queens Criminal Court judges will have electronic access to complaints, RAP sheets and orders of protection as well as pending cases for defendants across New York City and state. In the past, judges could only access the documents and information from other counties by calling the clerk’s office and requesting the documents be faxed or emailed. The cumbersome process delayed proceedings, and was unavailable to judges in night court.

The Office of Court Administration tapped Queens Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny to test the new program, known as NYBench, along with a handful of judges in the other boroughs.

“This is revolutionizing the way we’re doing business here in Criminal Court and the technological aspect is wonderful,” Gershuny said. “Welcome to the 21st Century.”

In addition to accessing court documents digitally, NYBench allows judges to create and mark up virtual action sheets and other electronic documents. That information will be available to judges and clerical staff elsewhere in the city and state, OCA said.

“I’ll be here in Queens and if before me I have an someone with an open, pending Bronx case, or Manhattan case, I can get a 360-view of the defendant and I can look at all the underlying issues,” Gershuny said. ‘It’s beneficial to the defendant, to the people, to the judge. Having more information is better than having less information.”

NYBench was created by the court system’s Division of Technology.

OCA estimates that the new program will save thousands of hours for court personnel who no longer have to search for paper records, fax them, retrieve them and pass them among court officers, clerks and judges inside the courtroom. 

Gershuny said the proposal was in the works prior to the pandemic, but the coronavirus court shutdown demonstrated the need for virtual access.

“It was bound to happen. We were moving toward tech changes in the courthouse pre-pandemic but this certainly made the need evident,” he said.