follow author William Glaberson is a reporter for City Room, one of The New York Times Blogs. He is the recipient of the fourth annual Hal Hovey Award, presented by Governing Magazine and Stateline.org for outstanding journalistic coverage of state and local government. Glaberson is being honored for "Broken Bench," a three-part series which documents the idiosyncrasies and abuses of New York's town and village courts and the state's halting efforts at reforming them. Glaberson's year-long investigation uncovered shocking details about the little-noted court system. Judges, he found, lack basic knowledge of proper courtroom procedures, and these shortcomings repeatedly have led them to deny the New Yorkers who appear before them fundamental legal rights.