In city and district courts, cases are referred by the police to the local district attorney’s office within hours after an arrest. An assistant district attorney investigates and speaks with victims and witnesses before formal charges are written up in a criminal complaint. The person arrested is assigned a lawyer, who will meet with the client, discuss the case, and prepare a bail argument for the judge at arraignment. An assistant district attorney, a defense lawyer, and a judge are present at arraignment in city and district court. In some city courts—such as in New York City—many cases are resolved with a plea or dismissal at arraignment. That quick resolution to a case can only happen when an assistant district attorney is available to conference a case and if a defense lawyer is present to argue for an immediate disposition. For cases that are not resolved at arraignment in city courts, judges may have the option to release a person “under supervision” to pretrial services. This can occur when a judge isn’t willing to release the person on his or her own recognizance, but will consider an alternative to setting bail. In Nassau and Suffolk, arraignment occurs in district court, which has similar resources and follows the same arrest-to-arraignment process as city court.
These resources and alternatives are often unavailable in town and village courts. Following an arrest in a town or village, the arresting officer will call an assistant district attorney for a bail recommendation, and will alert the justice on call, as well as the defense lawyer, if one is available. The justice will arrive and conduct the arraignment, either in the local courtroom or at another location if the courtroom is unavailable or too far away. At arraignment, no formal charges have been investigated by the district attorney’s office, and no information is conveyed to the justice other than from the arresting officer and, if one is present, the defense attorney.
Under New York law, the justices elected to serve in the town and village courts are not required to be lawyers, and approximately two-thirds are not. Funded by their localities, the town and village courts are not staffed by the New York State Office of Court Administration and are not under the jurisdiction of the statewide court system. Some town and village courts have their own courthouses and have at least two or three justices. These well-resourced town and village courts meet at least weekly, holding regularly scheduled calendar appearances to manage their dockets and caseloads. However, other town and village courts operate with less regularity. Court is convened when an arrest happens, or once every few weeks when a scheduled matter is on the calendar. These town and village courts are often far away from the local jail where people are detained pretrial while their cases are pending.