Search New York County Supreme Court Cases

What the New York County Supreme Court Is

The name throws people off. In most states the supreme court sits at the top and only hears appeals. In New York the Supreme Court is the trial court. It is the court of general jurisdiction, meaning it can hear almost any kind of case, civil or criminal, with no dollar cap. Manhattan sits in the 1st Judicial District, and its Supreme Court is one of the busiest in the state.

The court runs as two distinct operations. The Civil Term handles civil suits and matrimonial matters. The Criminal Term handles felony prosecutions. They keep separate buildings, separate clerks, and separate case-number formats. A search in the wrong term will turn up nothing even when the file exists. The New York County Clerk acts as the clerk of the Supreme Court and holds the civil case files at 60 Centre Street.

Both terms fall under one administrative structure. The Civil Term's official page lists Administrative Judge Suzanne J. Adams and Chief Clerk VII Peter A. Sorrento. To look up a filed case, see the steps on the New York County court records page, which walks through the eCourts portals.

New York County Supreme Court Terms and Buildings

The Supreme Court does not sit in a single building. Its work spreads across several Civic Center addresses clustered near Foley Square. The principal civil courthouse is at 60 Centre Street, on Foley Square just north of the Brooklyn Bridge entrance. It holds courtrooms, justices' chambers, and the office of the New York County Clerk. The Criminal Term sits a few blocks away on Centre Street. The table below lists the main terms and divisions with their courthouse addresses.

As of August 1, 2024, the Criminal Term about page reports 29 courtrooms across two buildings with 37 distinct court parts. The 100 Centre Street building is shared with Manhattan Criminal Court, the District Attorney, and other agencies; 111 Centre Street is shared with Manhattan Civil Court. The Civil Term keeps related operations at 80 Centre Street, 111 Centre Street, and 71 Thomas Street, with jury assembly rooms at 60 and 111 Centre Street and 71 Thomas Street.

New York County Supreme Court Civil Term

The Civil Term is the general civil trial court for Manhattan. It hears cases with no upper dollar limit, which sets it apart from the lower city courts. Tort claims, contract disputes, foreclosures, and Article 78 proceedings against government agencies all land here. The court runs on an index-number system, with one sequence per filing year. The County Clerk's examples look like 12345/1985 or 123456/2010.

Matrimonial cases are a major part of the docket. Divorce, separation, and related family-financial actions are filed in the Civil Term, though the records carry strong privacy limits. Court hours run 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and the main civil phone is 646-386-3600. The County Clerk holds the physical files and handles record retrieval and certified copies.

The Civil Term also runs a Commercial Division. This is a specialized set of parts for business and commercial disputes that meet a dollar threshold, such as breach-of-contract claims between companies, shareholder fights, and complex commercial matters. Cases there get assigned to justices who hear only commercial work, which speeds the handling of high-stakes business litigation. For the full list of civil case types and how to pull a file, see the court records page and the New York County Clerk page.

New York County Supreme Court Criminal Term

The Criminal Term prosecutes felonies in Manhattan. A felony case reaches this court after indictment by a grand jury or by a superior court information. Before that point, the case usually starts in the lower NYC Criminal Court, which handles the arraignment and any preliminary steps. The Criminal Term then takes over for the felony trial and sentencing.

Court hours run 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., or later if a session runs long, and courtroom doors open at 9:15 a.m. Building rules ban smoking, radios, tape recorders, cameras, and photography or video without a judge's permission. Inside a courtroom, rules also ban eating, drinking, talking, reading, and sleeping, and require phones, laptops, tablets, and smart watches to be turned off.

NYC Criminal Court general information for New York County runs at 646-386-4511. The Criminal Term shares its two buildings with several other offices, so a visitor should check the posted court part and floor before going up. The NYC Criminal Court page covers the misdemeanor and arraignment side, while felony case history sits in the court records search.

Finding the New York County Supreme Court

The map below, from Google Maps, marks 60 Centre Street, the home of the Supreme Court Civil Term and the County Clerk. It sits on Foley Square in Manhattan's Civic Center, a short walk from the Criminal Term buildings on Centre Street.

A visitor coming for civil trials, County Clerk records, certifications, or filings should start at 60 Centre Street unless a notice or clerk has sent them elsewhere. The 4/5 train stops at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall, the N/R/W at Canal Street, and the 1 at Franklin Street, all within walking distance.

Supreme Court vs the Lower New York City Courts

The Supreme Court sits above the NYC Civil Court and the NYC Criminal Court, the two main lower trial courts in Manhattan. Knowing which court holds a case saves a wasted search. The split comes down to the dollar amount on civil matters and the level of the charge on criminal ones. The comparison block below lays out the three courts side by side.

NYC Civil Court covers smaller money claims, small claims up to $10,000, and the Housing Part for landlord-tenant disputes. NYC Criminal Court covers misdemeanors, lesser offenses, summons matters, and the first appearances in felony cases. Family Court at 60 Lafayette Street and Surrogate's Court at 31 Chambers Street sit outside this civil-criminal split and handle family and estate matters separately. For Manhattan civil claims under the cap, see the NYC Civil Court page.

How a New York County Court Case Moves Up

Cases follow a path from the lower courts up to the Supreme Court and then on to the appeals courts. A criminal matter and a civil matter take different routes, but both can end at the state's highest court. The flow lists below trace the two common paths.

A felony case usually starts with an arrest and a first appearance in the lower criminal court, then moves up after a grand jury indictment:

1. Arraignment and preliminary steps in NYC Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street.
2. Grand jury indictment or superior court information sends the felony up.
3. Trial and sentencing in the Supreme Court Criminal Term.
4. Appeal to the Appellate Division, First Department, at 27 Madison Avenue.
5. Final appeal, by permission, to the Court of Appeals in Albany, the state's highest court.

A civil case can start in either the lower court or the Supreme Court, depending on the amount in dispute. Small claims and lower-value suits begin in NYC Civil Court, with appeals heard by the Appellate Term, which sits at 60 Centre Street and reviews NYC Civil and Criminal Court cases for New York and Bronx Counties. Higher-value civil suits start in the Supreme Court Civil Term and appeal directly to the Appellate Division, First Department, before any further review by the Court of Appeals.

Appeals Above the New York County Supreme Court

Two courts sit above the Supreme Court for Manhattan cases. The intermediate appeals court is the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and Manhattan falls in the First Department. It hears appeals from the Supreme Court and other courts, and its courthouse is at 27 Madison Avenue. Most appeals from a Supreme Court judgment go there first.

The state's highest court is the New York Court of Appeals, based in Albany. It hears a small set of cases, usually by permission, and its rulings bind every lower court in the state. For appeals from the lower city courts, the Appellate Term handles the first step instead of the Appellate Division.

Below the Supreme Court level, three other courts round out the Manhattan system. Family Court handles child support, custody, juvenile delinquency, abuse and neglect, and adoption. Surrogate's Court handles wills, estates, and guardianship. The Midtown Community Justice Center at 314 West 54th Street works as a neighborhood court. Pending court dates for all of these appear through the New York County court dockets.

New York County Supreme Court Contacts

The contact cards below give the main public lines for the two terms of the court. The County Clerk holds the civil files, so record requests for Supreme Court civil cases route through its Records Department rather than a courtroom clerk.

For certified copies and older civil files, the County Clerk Records Department sits in Room 103B at 60 Centre Street. To pull case history or check what a file shows, start with the court records search and the related County Clerk page.