The threat of massive disruptions to the city’s courts grew Friday as the ongoing mass strike of public defenders and legal services attorneys doubled in size.
Potentially even more detrimental to the city’s ability to provide legal services to New Yorkers is the increasing threat from attorneys with the Legal Aid Society to join the strike next week, a move that could leave the city short of 2,000 attorneys who provide representation to low income defendants.
The collective bargaining agreement between the Legal Aid Society, the city’s largest public defender organization, and their union was terminated on Friday, and the union, which represents roughly 1,100 attorney and non-attorney staff, said they’d go on strike by July 25 unless a new contract is agreed upon before then…