Discovery Reform in New York: What Can the Data Tell Us?

By Anna Stenkamp, Joanna Weill, and Michael Rempel

This report examines how New York’s 2020 discovery reform law has been implemented across New York City, the four downstate suburban counties (Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland), and the 53 remaining “upstate” counties. The law was designed to increase fairness in the criminal legal process by requiring prosecutors to exercise early sharing of evidence to the defense. Prosecutors must file a Certificate of Compliance (COC) within 20 or 35 days of arraignment (depending on whether a person is held pretrial or released), with a possible 30-day extension. This report evaluates whether the law has contributed to more case dismissals and whether case processing times have changed. In a first-ever analysis, this report also examines prosecutors’ compliance with the reform’s legal timelines for sharing evidence.

New York: Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, 2025. 37p.