The County Courts are courts within the

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

Unified Court System located in each county outside

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Constitution of the State of New York Article VI, § 10. "a. The county court is continued in each county outside the city of New York. There shall be at least one judge of the county court in each county and such number of additional judges in each county as may be provided by law. The judges shall be residents of the county and shall be chosen by the electors of the county. b. The terms of the judges of the county court shall be ten years from and including the first day of January next after their election." In New York City, criminal and civil matters are heard in the city Criminal Court and

Civil Court Civil law may refer to: * Civil law (common law), the part of law that concerns private citizens and legal persons * Civil law (legal system), or continental law, a legal system originating in continental Europe and based on Roman law ** Private la ...

, respectively, or the state Supreme Court.

Jurisdiction

The court has unlimited criminal jurisdiction and civil jurisdiction where the amount in controversy is no more than $25,000. In many counties, this court primarily hears criminal cases, while the Supreme Court primarily hears civil cases, and usually only

felonies A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "félonie") to describe an offense that resu ...

as lesser crimes are handled by local courts.

Structure

A County Court operates in each county except for the five counties of New York City (in those counties, the

New York City Courts The New York City court system consists of the several citywide and state courts. Courts There are two city courts, the Criminal Court and the Civil Court, and several state courts, the Supreme Court, Surrogate's Court, and Family Court. Unlike t ...

and Supreme Court operate in place of a typical County Court). Unlike the Supreme Court, each County Court is considered distinct. The County Court is authorized to establish "appellate sessions", an intermediate appellate court that hears appeals from the inferior courts. Appellate sessions are located in the Third and Fourth Judicial Departments only.

Judges

Judges are elected to ten-year terms.

Appellate procedure

Appeals in criminal cases originating in the County Court and in civil cases are taken to the Supreme Court, Appellate Division as of right, except for civil appeals in the Second Department, which are taken to the Appellate Term of the Supreme Court. In criminal matters in which the County Court acts as an appellate court, further appeal is to the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

and may be taken only by permission of a judge of that court.

Notes

References

* * * {{refend

External links

County Court

County Court
in the

New York Codes, Rules and Regulations The ''New York Codes, Rules and Regulations'' (NYCRR) contains New York state rules and regulations. The NYCRR is officially compiled by the New York State Department of State's Division of Administrative Rules. Contents See also * '' New York ...

New York (state) state courts Courts and tribunals with year of establishment missing