Morgan McKay is reporting for State of Politics the New York court system is now facing a significant backlog as approximately 200,000 pending cases from the pre-COVID era await adjudication, according to the New York State Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence Marks. “The Chief Judge Janet DiFiore made the decision that, while trial courts would remain open to handle essential and emergency matters, all other court matters would be postponed for the foreseeable future,” Judge Marks said during a legislative hearing last week. “Clearly that was the only choice." The courts have conducted nearly 47,000 virtual arraignments since March. By mid-April, this was expanded so some non-essential matters. Jury trials are now expected to return on a limited basis by early fall. Judge Marks warns that once the state’s eviction moratorium is up on October 1, there will be an avalanche of eviction cases inundating the system statewide. He says he is worried it will become politicized. Another concern raised during the hearing was that not everyone has access to a computer or the internet for use during virtual proceedings. Read the full story at nystateofpolitics [dot] com.