When the pandemic first hit, New York’s court system limited itself to hearing only essential and emergency cases.

However now, there are approximately 200,000 pending pre-COVID cases still waiting to be heard, according to the New York State Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks.  

“The Chief Judge Janet DiFiore made the decision that, while trial courts would remain open to handle essential and emergency matters, all other court matters would be postponed for the foreseeable future,” Judge Marks said during a legislative hearing on Thursday. “Clearly that was the only choice."

Since March, the courts have held nearly 47,000 virtual arraignments. By mid-April, this was expanded so some non-essential matters could be held virtually as well.

Now they expect that jury trials will return on a limited basis in the early fall.

“We recognize that for certain types of proceedings and for certain types of cases in person operations and appearances are a superior means of ensuring that courts fulfill their constitutional responsibility,” Judge Marks explained.

However, Judge Marks warns that once the state’s eviction moratorium is up on October 1, there will be an “avalanche” of eviction cases flooding into courtrooms across the state.

He says he is worried it will become politicized.

"We urge you to focus on this problem and not rely on us to do that,” Marks said to lawmakers. “Frankly, the state can’t rely on us to do that indefinitely to address that very controversial issue.”

Another concern brought up during the hearing was that not everyone has access to a computer or the internet for these virtual proceedings.