New "Lead Court" opens in City of Buffalo

The new court's first session was Tuesday.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - There's a new effort in Buffalo City Court to address a backlog that stretches year in cases that deal with lead poisoning.

For many years, the local court system has operated housing and drug courts. Now, a new court will be created in Buffalo: a "Lead Court" that will be geared toward remediating homes.

Cases of lead poisoning have been heard in Buffalo Housing Court for years, but starting this month, those cases will be transferred to Buffalo City Court Judge Phillip Dabney. Cases will be heard twice a week and the first session was Tuesday. Due to the pandemic, there is still a backlog of 685 court cases that involve some type of lead poisoning.

Judge Dabney says that the court will hold homeowners accountable.

"There will be some required skin in the game, if you will, it could result in circumstances of a warrant or even a default judgment, where there are circumstances of work that has failed to be done that has brought about some type of cost," Dabney said.

Lead poisoning has been an issue in Erie County and particularly the City of Buffalo because of aging housing stock. The Erie County Health Department says 85% of lead poisoning cases are in the city.

"If the residence is a danger to the individuals who live in them, there's only a certain amount of things the Erie County Department of Health can do, it's up to the judiciary to go and actually enforce the laws that are on the books against the homeowners which often are landlords who are renting them to others," said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.

Erie County is getting a $9 million grant to create a rental registry to hire more sanitarians, but this is dependent on the state budget being passed.

Lead poisoning cases involving children have remained steady for years. In 2019, more than 400 kids became ill, last year more than 500 were confirmed to have lead poisoning.