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History
- Referred to judiciary
Companion bill
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Requires the office of court administration to collect and maintain data on limited English proficient litigants in the state
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 judiciary law, in relation to requiring the office of court administration to collect and maintain data on limited English proficient litigants in the state
Purpose or general idea of bill
To require the office of court administration to collect and maintain data on all limited English proficient individuals who are litigating in New York State Courts.
Summary of provisions
Section one of the bill adds a new section 391 to amend the judiciary law and defines "language assistance services" as interpretation services and/or translation services provided by interpreter personnel to a limited English proficient individual in his or her primary language to ensure such individual's ability to communicate effectively with a court, court personnel and other parties. This defines "primary language" and the language in which a limited English proficient individual chooses to communicate with others and "translation services" as oral explanation or written translation. The office of court administration shall collect and maintain data on all limited English proficient individuals.
Section two requires that this act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.
Justification
New York State has approximately 5.5 million residents who are not native English speakers and 2.5 million New Yorkers with limited English proficiency (LEP). Seeking to address the needs of this large and growing population, Governor Cuomo signed Executive Order Number 26 in 2011 requiring all state agencies that provide direct public services to begin translating essential forms, instructions and other documents in the six most common languages found in the state. Under the Executive Order Number 26 the agencies also must provide interpretation in clients' primary language, regardless of whether it is one of the six most common. State agencies were required to begin providing these services by October 6, 2012.
While this was a significant step forward in meeting the needs of LEP New Yorkers, the state Office of Court Administration was not specifically covered by the executive order. OCA has sought to provide translation services to LEP parties in civil court actions but those efforts have been far from comprehensive. By requiring the Office of Court Administration to collect and maintain data on LEP litigants, data that would be disaggregated by court and county, this legislation lays the groundwork for a comprehensive approach to the translation needs of all LEP New Yorkers to ensure equitable access to our civil court system.
Legislative history of the bill
New Legislation
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.