No Notice

“I had to be in court? I didn’t know,” states the interpreter, translating for the Spanish-speaking defendant.

“Well you knew when I told you last time,” the judge retorts, growing increasingly irritated at the defendant’s perceived irresponsibility.

No emails. No calls. Just an expectation to write down the court date and show up on time.

According to a 2025 Pew Research study, while court reminders demand only 0.05% of the judiciary budgets of states implementing them, New York was listed as a state with either no reminders or a failure to respond to the researchers. As someone who has shown up to Poughkeepsie City Court every Friday for the past few weeks and witnessed multiple “failures to appear,” it seems to me there are ways to increase attendance and relieve some defendant stress in the process. I have noticed that the attorneys from the public defender’s office usually hand their clients a slip of paper reminding them of their court date. While this is better than no notice at all, paper can easily get lost and forgotten, especially with an appointment that is weeks or months away. It is also my understanding that after their arraignment, defendants are told to check a box (no more than one) choosing how they would like to be notified about future appointments. This seems quite limiting when using only one method has been proven to be ineffective thus far. 

To remedy the problem of missed court dates, local courts should consider creating a system to email, text, call, or even send a letter in the mail, especially since contact information is already recorded as part of general proceedings. Not only would such measures save the time spent addressing no-shows (including the issuance of bench warrants), but it would also eliminate the time it takes for judges to tell defendants, “You will not be getting a reminder so write it down,” or reprimand them for failing to appear as scheduled with phrases like, “Why didn’t you show up when you were supposed to?” 

If this subject is of interest to you, there are a myriad of resources to better understand it. In addition to the Pew research study above, check out ideas42’s Improving Court Attendance: The Essential Guide to Court Reminder Programs and Pelican Policy’s Save the Court Date: How Technology Can Help Reduce “Failure to Appear” Rates.