Author: BXD
BxD’s Runa Rajagopal Receives 2016 New York City Bar Association Legal Services Award
The Bronx Defenders is proud to congratulate Runa Rajagopal, director of our Civil Action Practice, for receiving a 2016 New York City Bar Association Legal Services Award! Runa was one of five honorees who received this distinguished award for her outstanding work and dedication as a public defender. The Legal Services Awards were established to recognize the efforts […]
In the Bronx, justice is delayed & denied
Our Executive Director, Robin Steinberg, published the following piece in Daily News about our lawsuit challenging systemic court delay in the Bronx. “This situation constitutes nothing short of a constitutional crisis. People in the poorest borough in New York, with the highest percentage of black and Latino residents, are being forced to choose between returning to […]
No One in NYC Should Be Forced to Make These Choices
Karume James, a staff attorney in our Criminal Defense Practice, published the following piece in The Huffington Post about the need for reduced fare MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers and the impact such a program would have on our clients. “Among the many “broken windows” cases we get at The Bronx Defenders, I’ve always found arrests for […]
New York Times Editorial: A Nightmare Court, Worthy of Dickens
The New York Times Editorial Board weighs in on Trowbridge et al., v. Cuomo et al, our federal lawsuit challenging the epidemic of court delays in the Bronx Criminal Court. “This Dickensian nightmare is all too common in the Bronx, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Federal District Court by the Bronx Defenders, […]
Public Defenders In The Bronx, N.Y., File Lawsuit Over Court Delays
“Public defenders in the Bronx filed a lawsuit Tuesday against lawmakers in New York. They charge that courts are chronically understaffed, jeopardizing the right to a speedy trial for many defendants.” Listen to the story here. For more on the lawsuit, see our press release.
New York Times: Chronic Bronx Court Delays Deny Defendants Due Process, Suit Says
“Court delays in the Bronx — so troublesome that state officials had to create special courts to clear a backlog of felony cases — remain unresolved and have “fatally undermined the right to trial” for tens of thousands of people charged each year with low-level offenses, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.” Read the article […]
BxD’s Annie Pineda to speak at 2016 Equal Justice Conference
On May 12, 2016, Annie Pineda, Director of Pro Bono at The Bronx Defenders, will speak at the 2016 Equal Justice Conference in a panel entitled “Getting to Know You, Getting to Know All about You: What Legal Services Organizations and Law Firms Should Know about Working Together.” From the organizers: “This session will offer insider […]
Groundbreaking Federal Lawsuit Challenges Epidemic of Delay in Bronx Criminal Court
Contact: media@bronxdefenders.org Broken System Undermines Right to Speedy Trial and Due Process for Thousands of People Charged with Low-Level Offenses, Causing Significant Social and Economic Hardships NEW YORK (May 10, 2016) – A federal class action lawsuit was filed today against Governor Andrew Cuomo and the administrators of New York State’s Unified Court System for […]
The Defenders
Longreads profiles The Bronx Defenders. “The quality of the lawyering among public defenders in New York City is universally understood to be very high; that wasn’t Robin Steinberg’s concern. She saw inadequacy built into the very structure of public defense. In the nineties, she noticed that more of the clients she was defending were being […]
Let Them Work
Emily Galvin, an attorney in our Criminal Defense Practice, published the following piece in Slate about the need to rethink prison employment. Most people are at least intuitively aware of the connection between poverty and prison. As Bryan Stevenson, the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, has said, too often the opposite of poverty […]