“The safety of New Yorkers is my number one priority and this week, reforms that will make our public safety laws stronger go into effect—changes that enable us to better support survivors and close the revolving door of our court system,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in an announcement on Aug. 6.
The amendments, passed as part of the 2026 financial year state budget, are scheduled to take effect on Aug. 7. Hochul said the changes were carefully crafted to preserve due process for defendants while preventing cases from being dismissed over what she called “insignificant mistakes.”
“Our Discovery Laws—some of the strongest for defendants in the country—ensure that our justice system works for both victims and public safety officers, rebalancing the scales of justice in New York,” she said.
The reforms follow growing concerns about the impact of the 2019 discovery overhaul, which expanded prosecutors’ obligations to turn over evidence on tight deadlines. While the law was designed to improve transparency and protect the rights of defendants, state officials and prosecutors have said that it led to widespread case dismissals over minor or duplicative omissions.
The report detailed how courts were required to retroactively apply delays caused by discovery errors to the prosecution’s trial timeline—even when the mistakes were made in good faith and involved redundant or irrelevant evidence. As a result, nearly 50,000 cases were dismissed statewide in 2024 for speedy trial violations, up from about 10,500 in 2019, according to Hochul’s office.
One example cited in the report involved a domestic violence case that was dropped because a prosecutor failed to submit an auto-generated document containing information already disclosed. Another was dismissed because the prosecution did not hand over body camera footage from a failed attempt to contact the victim at home.
The newly enacted changes are aimed at restoring discretion to judges and protecting victims from having their cases dropped because of administrative missteps.
Courts will be required to consider whether missing material actually harmed the defense before dismissing a case, narrow the list of materials that prosecutors must pursue, allow prosecutors to move forward if they have made a good-faith effort to obtain and disclose evidence, require defense attorneys to raise objections early, and streamline redactions to protect witness privacy.
The state also allocated $135 million to help both prosecutors and defenders meet compliance requirements.
Rensselaer County District Attorney Mary Pat Donnelly, who leads the state’s District Attorneys Association, praised the changes, saying they will help ensure that victims are not left without recourse because of paperwork issues.
“The commonsense amendments that are being enacted will help minimize technical dismissals and ensure that victims of crime receive the justice they deserve,” Donnelly said. “These amendments will make our communities safer while also protecting the rights of those accused of crimes.”
Critics of the new law—including the Legal Aid Society and some Democratic lawmakers—argued earlier this year that rolling back parts of the 2019 law could reintroduce delays, coerced pleas, and secrecy into the process.
In March, the Legal Aid Society said that the changes “would return [the state] to an era marked by wrongful convictions, mass incarceration, coerced pleas, and court delays.”
Supporters, including Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said the changes were overdue.
“No one understands the need for commonsense changes to our discovery laws better than victims of crime and our partners in law enforcement who see too many victims being denied justice and too many perpetrators reoffending thanks to loopholes in our laws,” Hochul said at a press conference in April.
