Richmond County Criminal Court Operations

Effective immediately and until further notice, Richmond County Criminal Court will make the following changes to its operations:

· All in-person appearances will be suspended and rescheduled. (Defense counsel should notify any defendants scheduled to appear this week not to report for an in-person appearance).

· Only essential matters will be scheduled and heard. All other matters will be administratively adjourned.

· Essential matters include live arraignments, preliminary hearings, CPL 180.80 and 170.70 and other time-sensitive applications. (In-person DAT arraignments will be suspended and rescheduled). These matters will be conducted virtually in Part AR1 (and AR 4 on the weekends) and Part AP1. All parties will appear remotely. (Grand Jury operations will be addressed by Supreme Court in a separate email).

· CJA release assessment interviews may not be conducted at the courthouse.

· Only personnel essential to AR1, AP1, back office and security functions will be instructed to report in-person to 26 Central Avenue.

· Public foot traffic for Criminal Court operations will be limited to arraignment viewing, posting of bail and other time-sensitive, critical functions.

March 2021 Part Rules

Richmond Supreme Operational Adjustments

In an effort to minimize foot traffic and in-person appearances, Richmond Supreme Court will begin implementing they following operational adjustments. These adjustments will be effective immediately and shall remain in place until further notice;

· All Criminal matters requiring and in-person appearance will either be converted to a virtual appearance or reschedule for a future date.

· All civil and matrimonial conferences and appearances will remain to be virtual only.

· Only essential employees will report the court house to maintain of operations.

· Court Reporters, Clerical employees, interpreters and law department employees will report virtually.

· Public foot traffic for the Supreme will be limited to posting of bail, warrant returns and other time-sensitive critical functions.

See the Historical Society for the NY Courts' video, "New York State Lawyers' Response to the Pandemic Project." Click HERE.