ALBANY, N.Y., Jan 12 (Reuters) - Acting Supreme Court Justice Barry Kamins has been appointed chief administrative judge of criminal courts in New York City, the Office of Court Administration announced Wednesday.

The position of overseeing one of the busiest criminal court systems in the country has been vacant since 2008, when Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman sought to decentralize the post by allowing administrative judges in each borough to handle their own jurisdictions.

"The feeling (now) is with a centralized administration we can better focus on the issues" facing courts across the city," Kamins, 68, told Reuters on Thursday.

Kamin's appointment is effective immediately.

His top priority, he said, will be to ensure compliance with a state law requiring defendants to be brought in front of judges "without unnecessary delay." The Court of Appeals has interpreted that law as requiring an arraignment within 24 hours of arrest.

"It's extremely important that all the pieces fit together between the police, the district attorneys and the courts to arraign people within 24 hours," Kamins said.

About 913,000 new criminal cases were filed in the city in 2010, a nearly 3-percent increase over the previous year and a 30-percent increase since 1997, according to the Office of Court Administration.

Kamins said he'll take "a fresh look" at the ways judges handle their calendars to address rising caseloads in the face of $170 million in budget cuts that have necessitated shorter court hours and hundreds of layoffs statewide.

"This is a difficult time, where you have less resources to handle more cases," he said.

'DEFT MANAGEMENT SKILLS'

Kamins is currently the administrative judge for criminal matters in Brooklyn Supreme Court, a position he will keep and in which he has "demonstrat(ed) deft management skills and extraordinary leadership qualities," Chief Administrative Judge A. Gail Prudenti said in a statement.

Prudenti said that Kamins was "uniquely qualified to face the challenges" of his new position.

The judge has agreed to take on the new duties without a pay raise. He will continue to make $141,500 a year, but like other state trial judges, he will see a 27-percent pay hike over the next three years.

Kamins was appointed to the criminal court bench in Brooklyn in 2008, and was appointed an Acting Supreme Court Justice the following year.

In the late 1960s and early '70s, he served as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn before becoming that office's deputy chief for criminal courts. He was later a partner in the criminal defense firm Flamhaft Levy Kamins Hirsch & Rendeiro.

Kamins currently teaches New York criminal practice as an adjunct at Brooklyn Law School and Fordham University Law School. He served as the president of the New York City Bar Association from 2006 to 2008.

Kamins received his bachelor's degree from Columbia College and his J.D. from Rutgers University Law School.

(Reporting by Dan Wiessner)

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