A 7189: Requires town and village justices be admitted to practice law in New York state for at least five years as of the date they commence the duties of office.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 7189 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY March 21, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. BICHOTTE HERMELYN, ZINERMAN, DAVILA, EPSTEIN, WEPRIN, HYNDMAN, SHIMSKY, TAYLOR -- read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary AN ACT to amend the uniform justice court act, the town law and the village law, in relation to requiring town and village justices be admitted to practice law in the state The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 105 of the uniform justice court act is amended by 2 adding a new subdivision (a-1) to read as follows: 3 (a-1) Education. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the 4 contrary, no person may serve as a town or village justice in a town or 5 village unless they are an attorney admitted to practice law in this 6 state for at least five years as of the date they commence the duties of 7 office. Notwithstanding the foregoing, non-attorney justices in office 8 as of the effective date of this subdivision shall remain eligible to 9 serve as a justice for the court on which they currently sit for the 10 remainder of their term. 11 § 2. Section 31 of the town law is amended by adding a new subdivision 12 2-a to read as follows: 13 2-a. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no 14 person may serve as a town justice unless they are an attorney admitted 15 to practice law in this state for at least five years as of the date 16 they commence the duties of office. Notwithstanding the foregoing, 17 non-attorney justices in office as of the effective date of this subdi- 18 vision shall remain eligible to serve as a justice for the court on 19 which they currently sit for the remainder of their term. 20 § 3. Section 3-301 of the village law is amended by adding a new 21 subdivision 6 to read as follows: 22 6. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no 23 person may serve as a village justice unless they are an attorney admit- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD11045-01-5 
 A. 7189 2 1 ted to practice law in this state for at least five years as of the date 2 they commence the duties of office. Notwithstanding the foregoing, 3 non-attorney justices in office as of the effective date of this subdi- 4 vision shall remain eligible to serve as a justice for the court on 5 which they currently sit for the remainder of their term. 6 § 4. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 7 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.