Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Commissioner Tisch explains challenges with discovery law requirements
2:29:04
ยท
71 sec
Commissioner Jessica Tisch provides a detailed explanation of the challenges posed by current discovery law requirements, particularly focusing on the broad scope of materials that must be produced under the term 'related' as opposed to 'relevant'.
- Tisch uses an analogy about producing documents related to the 'How Many Stops Act' to illustrate the extensive burden of current requirements
- She emphasizes the extraordinary nature of the burden when using a term like 'related' instead of 'relevant'
- The commissioner calls for common sense corrections to allow police and prosecutors to make good faith efforts to meet the actual burden without retreating from the spirit of the reforms
Jessica Tisch
2:29:04
Yes.
2:29:05
And I'd like to make one point on on the discovery laws.
2:29:08
There was a whole discussion before on the question of whether we need to produce things that are relevant or related, related being a much bigger universe of materials than relevant.
2:29:22
What if I said to the city council, you need to produce any document in the council's possession related to the How Many Stops Act?
2:29:37
That would mean that you would have to go through every notebook, every staffer has.
2:29:44
I mean, the burden is so extraordinary when you use a word like related as opposed to relevant as to be totally unachievable.
2:29:56
And so what we are looking for I believe are common sense corrections that again do not retreat from the spirit of the reforms but allow both the police and the prosecutors to make good faith efforts to meet the actual burden.