New York County Court Information

New York County Court is a general jurisdiction trial court. There are 57 county courts in the State of New York outside New York City. The New York County Courts can hear both civil and criminal cases. Jury trials are also arranged for at these courts.

The civil cases handled at the New York County Court include civil appeals, contract, tort and real property cases where the amount in controversy involves less than $25,000 and miscellaneous cases. Criminal case trials are also conducted at the county courts of New York. The county courts of New York are served by 129 judges; some of them serve the Family Courts and/or Surrogate Courts.

Location of New York County Courts

Operating under the New York State Unified Court System, the New York County Courts are located in all the counties. The distribution of these courts is done according to the judicial districts under which the particular county falls.

If you want to know the details of the courts located in a particular county all you need to do is go to the http://www.courts.state.ny.us/litigants/courtguides/index.shtml. There is a list of counties on this webpage and you can click on any of these to navigate to the court descriptions, courthouse addresses, directions to the locations of the courthouses, contact numbers, hours of operation and such other useful information.

For example, if you wish to access information about the courts operating in New York County, you can find it at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/litigants/courtguides/1stJD_newyork.pdf. The information includes details about the Supreme Court-Civil Term, Supreme Court-Criminal Term, Civil Court, Criminal Court, Family Court and Surrogate Court.

The details include addresses, locations, directions, contact numbers, and so on about all these particular divisions of the court system. Similar information about all the counties of the State of New York is available from this website. You can also find the address of the county courthouses at http://www.ncsconline.org/D_Kis/CourtWebSites/CtWeb_NYcounty.htm.

Types of New York County Court

Two types of courts operate under the New York County Court. These are as follows:

Family Court: Present in 62 counties of New York State, the Family Courts are served by 127 judges. Along with these judges, 6 county court judges also have the power to decide on cases brought to the court. The number of quasi-judicial staff appointed by these courts is 81. These limited jurisdiction courts have the authority to decide the following types of cases:

·    Domestic relations cases
·    Guardianship cases
·    Exclusive juvenile cases
·    Exclusive domestic violence cases

However, Family Courts do not have the authority to arrange for trials.

Surrogates’ Courts: These limited jurisdiction courts can conduct jury trials only in probate or estate cases. Adoption cases are also presented at these courts. The number of Surrogates’ Courts is 62, and 51 judges of the county court and 31 surrogates serve this court.

New York County Court Forms

The forms of the New York County Courts are available at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/litigants/forms.shtml#LS and the filing fees structure for each of the county courts can be found at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/litigants/forms.shtml#1. If you cannot find a particular form on this webpage, you can search for it at http://www.courts.state.ny.us/litigants/forms.shtml.