Administrative Rules of the Unified Court System & Uniform Rules of the Trial Courts

§ 45.1. Integrated Youth Court in Westchester County.

(a) The purpose of this rule is to promote the administration of justice in the courts of Westchester County and for minors who simultaneously are defendants in criminal cases and respondents in Family Court cases in such county.

(b) The Chief Administrator of the Courts, following consultation with and agreement of the Presiding Justice of the Second Judicial Department, may by administrative order establish an Integrated Youth Court in Westchester County to operate as a multi-court part of the County Court and the Family Court in such county. As provided by rules of the Chief Administrator promulgated pursuant to subdivision (c) of this section, such Integrated Youth Court, when established, shall be devoted to the hearing and determination, in a single forum, of cases simultaneously pending in such courts where
(1) at least one such case is in a criminal court and at least one such case is in the Family Court;
(2) a defendant in each such case in a criminal court also is a respondent in each such case in the Family Court; and
(3) such defendant is less than twenty-one years of age at the time of the alleged commission of an offense prosecuted in such case in the criminal court. The Chief Administrator also may provide that a civil action pending in a City Court, Town Court or Village Court in Westchester County, or in the County Court thereof, shall be eligible for disposition in the Integrated Youth Court where such action arises out of substantially the same facts as underlie cases then pending in such Court and a defendant in such action is a party to those pending cases. The Chief Administrator also may provide that, where cases are disposed of in the Integrated Youth Court, subsequent cases that would have been eligible for disposition therein were they to have been pending simultaneously with the cases already disposed of shall be eligible for disposition therein.

(c) The Chief Administrator shall promulgate rules to regulate the operation of the Integrated Youth Court in Westchester County. Such rules shall permit a judge of the County Court in such county to transfer to such Court, for disposition in the Integrated Youth Court, any case pending in a City Court, Town Court or Village Court in such county upon a finding that such a transfer would promote the administration of justice.