Increase pay for 18-b attorneys access to justice | 2023 NYS Legislative Agenda
The City Bar continues to endorse the statutory changes required to sustainably provide reasonable and equitable compensation for the 18-b attorneys representing the parents and children who come before the Family Courts of our state, in addition to those assigned counsel who represent indigent clients in Surrogate’s Court and Criminal Court. Nonprofit offices representing parents and children in the Family Courts must also have funding enhanced. Failure to adequately fund the services of these attorneys has resulted in further marginalization of the thousands of Black and brown families who depend on court appointed legal counsel to represent them in matters of the utmost fundamental importance. We believe that past funding cuts for these nonprofit offices must not only restored but also enhanced even to begin to achieve the race equity required for the fair administration of justice in New York City and State.
– New for 2023 –
