New York Chief Judge On Courts & Recession-Related Cases: "We Are The Emergency Room For Society"

In New York City, The New York Times reports:

• New York State’s courts are closing the year with 4.7 million cases — the highest tally ever — and new statistics suggest that courtrooms are now seeing the delayed result of the country’s economic collapse. [...] And the increase in New York offers a preview of the recession-related cases showing up in courts across the nation.

• New York’s judges are wading into these types of cases by the tens of thousands, according to the new statistics, cases involving not only bad debts and soured deals, but also filings that are indirect but still jarring measures of economic stresses, like charges of violence in families torn apart by lost jobs and homes in jeopardy.

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• “Society’s problems come to us,” New York’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, said. “We are the emergency room for society.” [...] Judge [Anil C.] Singh of the [Manhattan] Civil Court said that, from his bench, it was hard to see signs of a recovery. “I would describe it as a train wreck,” he said, “and I think it’s going to get worse for the next couple of years.”

For more, see The Recession Begins Flooding Into the Courts.