New York State Courts

New York’s judicial system has four different federal district courts, as well as a supreme court, an intermediate, appellate court and a number of different trial courts. Some of these trial courts have specific purposes such as subject-matter courts to deal with one type of trial.

The four federal courts are the origin for a number of federal cases. They are split by districts:

• Eastern District of New York
• Northern District of New York
• Southern District of New York
• Western District of New York

The court has four bankruptcy courts, with subject-matter judicial powers over purely bankruptcy issues. These cover the same districts as the federal courts.

Trial courts include the County Courts, every county other than New York City has its own, and these deal with cases with a dollar value less than $25,000.

Nassau County and Suffolk County also have small City courts to deal with misdemeanors.

Town and Village courts are common and there are over 1,000 of them in the state. They can deal with civil and criminal matters where the punishment is either under one year, or the financial value of the case or money sought is under $15,000.

Limited jurisdiction courts for family issues handle parental rights, divorces, and other family-related issues. There are also surrogate's courts which hear probate and adoption cases mainly.

New York City has its own system of Criminal Courts. These have jurisdiction over many of the crimes committed throughout the city.

https://www.ny.gov/

Court Name:	New York Courts Unified System
Address:	New York State Unified Court System 25 Beaver Street New York, NY 10004
Phone:	1 (800) 268-7869
Website URL:	https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/cts-outside-nyc-SUPREME.shtml

Intermediate and Supreme Courts

Though the supreme court is not the state’s court of last resort, it has an intermediate division known as the Appellate Division. This has four different divisions within which deal with specific issues referred from courts lower down in the system. The court hears appeals from trial courts throughout New York state.  

Cases which still aren’t resolved can be referred to the Supreme Court of the State of New York. This has one court for each of the 62 counties of the state. These have the most power and highest jurisdiction of the state of New York. 

Types of Courts in New York

How to Find New York Court Records Online

You can use our tool to search through details of digital records from the state of New York including divorce records, bail details, plea and sentencing information, mugshots, and much more. This is in order to stay inline with the Freedom of Information Act and allow people to see the local government records and make their own copies if they wish. 

The records have been digitized over the past few decades and you can search through the majority of the New York court records online. In some older cases you may still need to request information specifically.

New York Counties