A 2551 New York Assembly · 2025 Regular Session

Establishes minimum educational requirements of certain town and village justices

This bill requires towns and villages to adopt a local law if they want to mandate that their justices (who handle minor civil and criminal cases) must be licensed attorneys admitted to practice law in New York. It does not impose this requirement statewide; instead, it allows each town or village to decide by majority vote of its governing body whether to adopt the requirement. If adopted, the change would take effect at the start of the next judicial term following the election after the local law is passed. The bill sets a clear, concrete policy change for local justice eligibility but leaves implementation entirely to individual municipalities.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 17, 2025 Last action May 18, 2026
Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
3
Key actions
0
Committee
3
May 18, 2026
Committee
REPORTED REFERRED TO RULES
lower
Jan 7, 2026
Committee
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY
lower
Jan 17, 2025
Committee
REFERRED TO JUDICIARY
lower
1 primary · 12 co-sponsors

Sponsors