A new guidance from New York State Chief Administrative Judge Lawrence K. Marks issued on Thursday will allow for the filing of new residential and commercial eviction proceedings as early as next Monday. While the guidance indicates the cases won’t proceed until July 7th at the earliest, advocates are bracing for a veritable flood of evictions proceeding filings amidst the profound economic destruction wrought by the COVID-19 shutdown.

Legal Aid and public defenders throughout the city are rightly questioning the rushed and haphazard nature of the reopening – especially considering the destabilizing consequences they could have for millions of vulnerable New Yorkers.

“OCA is trying to please everybody by creating this pinhole opening into the courthouse,” said Sateesh Nori, attorney in charge of Legal Aid’s Queens Housing Office. “To me it just shows that they could have avoided all of this by just waiting to reopen, instead of setting up this labyrinth in front of the courthouse door for landlords and tenants to navigate. There are so many ambiguities that people are chewing over right now, on the Thursday before this happens.”