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History
- Referred to judiciary
Companion bill
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Relates to requiring certain civil court documents to be provided to parties in their native language
In Assembly Committee · Judiciary · Sponsor Latoya Joyner
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the New York city civil court act, in relation to requiring certain civil court documents to be provided to parties in their native language
Purpose
This legislation would require that parties in proceedings before New York City Civil Court who are not fluent in English be provided court papers and court stipulations in their own native language.
Summary of provisions
Section 1:
Adds a new Section 2105 to the New York City Civil Court Act requiring that parties in proceedings before New York City Civil Court who are not fluent in English be provided with the opportunity to obtain court orders and any other court documents in their own native language. Such court orders and documents can include stipulations directing action to be taken or forborne by either of such parties and shall be provided to such parties in their own native language. All parties shall demonstrate, to the satisfaction of the court, their comprehension of the nature and effect of each such court order or stipulation. To ensure that such court papers are accurate in a non-English language, the person who drafts such papers, shall provide the court with the document in English and the other language, and certify that they both documents accurately reflect the decision of the court.
Section 2:
Effective Date.
Justification
With the largest concentration of limited English speakers in New York State, the City of New York is home to 1.8 million people who face ongoing language barriers as they seek to navigate their way through the court system. The New York City Civil Court system is an extraordinarily busy court system with a total caseload of many hundreds of thousands of cases each year.
Each one of those actions can have a major impact upon the quality of life of the litigating parties. Hence, it is essential for our civil court system to be administered in an equitable manner that fairly administers justice to all parties - regardless of their language skills or fluency in English.
It is essential that all parties to stipulations fully understand the potential consequences of their actions before entering into an enforceable agreement that could dramatically affect their lives. This legislation builds upon the intent of current state and federal policies designed to ensure that witnesses and parties in court cases have access to translators as needed so they can effectively participate in proceedings. It closes an existing loophole by specifically requiring the translation of stipulations and recognizes the growing linguistic diversity of the residents of New York State's largest municipality.
Legislative history
New Legislation
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
This Act shall take effect on the 180th day after enacted into law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.