Albany's Mistake: Tenants Must Pay To Go To Court
JULY 09TH, 2003 - Source: NY1
Landlords and tenants groups agree on at least one thing: state lawmakers screwed up. In the following exclusive report, NY1’s Rita Nissan explains why they're both going to have dig deeper in their wallets whenever they go to court.
Manhattan resident Claudette Spencer, a mother of four, walked into a housing court Wednesday to fight for a rent-stabilized apartment.
She said she can hardly pay her rent, but she'll now have to fork over even more money to settle her case.
“Every time I come to court, if I have to give them money,” she said. “They’re telling me if I don't have it, I’m on the street.”
She is not alone. Starting Monday, fees in housing and civil courts will be imposed.
Why? Simply put: the state messed up. When the budget was adopted in May, legislators passed a law permitting fees in state supreme court: $45 for every motion, $35 for every case settled.
But when the state's Office of Court Administration took a closer look at the legislation, it interpreted it to include housing and civil courts. Senate and Assembly leaders agreed to fix the discrepancy as a part of a budget-clean-up-bill.
On the last day of session, legislators passed separate versions of it, but left Albany without amending it.
“Hopefully things will change, but I have to be prepared to put this into effect,” said administrative civil court Judge Fern Fisher. “We are a court, and if this is in fact a law, we are obligated to enforce it,” said Fisher.
For tenants and landlords, that means they could have to spend hundreds of dollars to settle a case.
“We would like the Office of Court Administration to reconsider the position it’s taking and to take into account the hardships that are going to be imposed by tenants and landlords and the fact that this law was never intended to apply to housing court,” said Mitchell Posilkin, who represents a landlord group, the Rent Stabilization Association.
If that doesn't happen, the Rent Stabilization Association may sue. The Legal Aid Society, which represents tenants, is considering doing the same.
“Most people in housing court are being sued because they’re having trouble paying their rent,” said Judith Goldiner of the Legal Aid Society. “The idea that they are going to be forced to pay to go to court now is just a disaster.”
--Rita Nissan