Several significant changes to New York’s criminal justice laws appeared in 2025. These changes affect the criminal justice process, specific criminal statutes, and operations of various courts throughout New York. Additional changes are still working through the state legislature, creating the potential for more adjustments before the year’s end.

Discovery Reform Makes Headlines Throughout New York

New York recently passed substantive legislation to reform the discovery process. In a criminal trial, “discovery” is the process by which the parties exchange information and narrow down key issues for trial. For criminal defendants, discovery is essential, as prosecutors are required to turn over any evidence they have that tends to show the defendant’s innocence. 

In 2020, New York passed significant discovery reforms. The recent legislation sought to address several unintended consequences of that 2020 bill. 

The recent changes still assume that prosecutors cannot be prepared for trial if they haven’t met their discovery obligations. However, the new rules give courts more discretion to determine whether a prosecutor has met those obligations. 

Amendments to Identity Theft and Child Pornography Laws

In 2025, the New York state legislature amended the state’s identity theft laws to clarify the definition of “personal identifying information.” Identity theft may occur when a party obtains personal identifying information, or PII, via fraud. The definition seeks to address an increase in medical identity theft, which can include physician numbers and patient identifying information. 

Legislators also expanded the definition of “promoting an obscene performance by a child” in the state’s child pornography laws. The definition now includes any “performance created or altered by digitization.” This update seeks to address advances in AI technology that enable the creation of “deepfakes,” or images and videos that do not depict real human beings. 

Mental Health and Other Problem-Solving Courts

The state legislature expanded eligibility for courts to preside over designated youth parts. Under the new law, court of claims and New York Supreme Court judges outside of New York City to preside over designated youth parts. Supreme Court judges must be acting justices assigned to the criminal term. 

Several bills seek to expand the abilities of problem-solving courts to address community needs. Twenty-six New York counties currently have one or more mental health courts. Under one proposed bill, a county without a mental health court could transfer a case to a neighboring county that has a mental health court. The district attorneys of both counties must agree to the transfer. 

Another bill would provide treatment for people charged with a misdemeanor but considered unfit to proceed to trial. The misdemeanor would be dismissed automatically once a person is sent to treatment by the court. The bill also requires the person to receive a case manager and access to other appropriate services. 

Increased Corporate Fines

In 2025, the New York Legislature raised the maximum fines for corporations convicted of criminal wrongdoing. The increase is the first such upward adjustment to corporate criminal fines in 60 years. 

Under the new laws, a corporation may face a fine of $80,000 for a felony conviction. A fine of $40,000 can be imposed for a Class A misdemeanor or any misdemeanor that comes with a potential imprisonment of three months or more. For Class B misdemeanors and misdemeanors with a sentence of less than three months’ imprisonment, a corporation may be fined up to $15,000. 

The new fines also allow a court to impose a fine of up to three times the corporation’s gain if the corporation is convicted of corrupting a government official under Article 496 of New York’s penal law. This change seeks to ensure that bribery, corruption, and similar acts do not enrich New York businesses. 

Proposed Changes to Watch Out For

Several changes to New York’s criminal laws are still working their way through the legislature or under investigation and research by various professional groups. If passed into law, these initiatives will further change New York’s criminal justice system. 

One proposed change seeks to give district attorneys’ offices direct access to law enforcement records and databases. Another aims to expand the use of electronic court appearances in criminal proceedings. New York prosecutors also hope to make progress on a project to raise the age of criminal responsibility in the state to 18.