BILL NUMBER: S2719
SPONSOR: MAY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the uniform justice court act, in relation to raising
the jurisdictional amount for small claims cases
 
PURPOSE:
To raise the jurisdictional amount that may be brought before a small
claims court.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 amends section 201 of the uniform court justice act to raise
the cap for claims that may be prosecuted in small claims court to
$10,000.
Section 2 amends section 202 of the uniform court justice act to raise
the cap for claims that may be brought to recover property to $10,000.
Section 3 amends section 208 of the uniform court justice act to raise
the cap for counterclaims to $10,000.
Section 4 amends section 211 of the uniform court justice act to allow
the consolidation of related cases that would otherwise fall within the
jurisdictional amount for small claims court to be aggregated to more
than the $10,000 amount.
Section 5 amends section 1801 of the uniform court justice act to define
small claims as all causes of action not exceeding $10,000.
Section 6 is the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
New York has the largest concentration of attorneys in the United
States, with 179,600 registered attorneys, and 155,369 of those attor-
neys have addresses in the state. However, despite having 17% of the
population and 80% of the land space in the state, there are only 6,176
attorneys serving in the large swaths of rural New York, according to
attorney-registration data. In reality, the number of rural attorneys
that actually offer legal services to individual members of the public
is much smaller than that statistic indicates, since a sizable propor-
tion of these attorneys do not offer legal services to the general
public, such as district attorneys and members of the judiciary. This is
corroborated by data from rural county bars.
The small claims limit was last changed in 1977, when it was raised to
$3,000. Despite this, inflation and the cost of living has increased
substantially since the 1970's, making the $3,000 cap all but meaning-
less. As a result of the stagnating cap permitted in small claims, liti-
gants are increasingly forced into the Supreme Court, where filing fees
are much higher than in small claims courts. For many rural New Yorkers,
the burdensome cost to filing in higher courts prevents them from opti-
mally utilizing the court system. An additional consequence of this
stagnating cap has been the overburdening of the higher courts as they
are forced to handle an increasing number of cases. This bill seeks to
bridge the gap between the reality of small claims in New York with the
legislative maximum amount that can be brought in small claims. As a
result of this legislation, the burden on higher courts will be lessened
as people use their local small claims courts. Additionally, raising the
limit would allow rural practitioners to handle more cases in their
community while keeping costs down for their clients.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-2022 - S.5294 (May) / A.6446 (Santabarbara)
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
No cost to the state.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
The ninetieth day after it shall have become a law.