New York Supreme Court and Other Trial Courts
Under the New York Constitution, the New York Supreme Court has unlimited civil jurisdiction and unlimited criminal jurisdiction. In practice, the New York Supreme Court hears civil actions that concern large sums. Civil actions about lesser sums are heard by courts of limited jurisdiction, such as the County Court and the New York City Civil Court.
Small civil actions are heard by courts of more-limited jurisdiction, such as the District Court in Nassau County, and the District Court in the five western towns of Suffolk County. Plus Town Courts, City Courts and Village Courts in rural areas.
Also in practice, the New York Supreme Court hears felony criminal cases in the five counties wholly within New York City: Bronx, New York, Richmond, Kings and Queens. An anomaly is that, in Bronx County, the New York Supreme Court hears misdemeanor criminal cases, too.
Outside New York City, the County Court hears felony criminal cases.
Misdemeanor criminal cases can be heard by the New York City Criminal Court, by the District Court in Nassau County, and by the District Court in the five western towns of Suffolk County. The least criminal cases are heard by Town Courts, City Courts and Village Courts.
There are specialized courts: probate matters are heard in the Surrogate's Court; juvenile delinquency and child custody matters are heard in the Family Court; and tort and contract claims against the State of New York are heard in the Court of Claims.
The New York Supreme Court has exclusive jurisdiction of matrimonial actions (divorce or annulment), declaratory judgments, and suits against public officials for arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable conduct. Those suits are provided for in Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and Rules. In addition, the New York Supreme Court has jurisdiction over most equity claims, such as those that sound in specific performance or rescission.
Read more about this topic: New York Supreme Court
Famous quotes containing the words york, supreme, court, trial and/or courts:
“Cities give us collision. Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Science, unguided by a higher abstract principle, freely hands over its secrets to a vastly developed and commercially inspired technology, and the latter, even less restrained by a supreme culture saving principle, with the means of science creates all the instruments of power demanded from it by the organization of Might.”
—Johan Huizinga (18721945)
“As to Don Juan, confess ... that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing; it may be bawdy, but is it not good English? It may be profligate, but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world? and tooled in a post-chaise? in a hackney coach? in a Gondola? against a wall? in a court carriage? in a vis a vis? on a table? and under it?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (17881824)
“You dont want a general houseworker, do you? Or a traveling companion, quiet, refined, speaks fluent French entirely in the present tense? Or an assistant billiard-maker? Or a private librarian? Or a lady car-washer? Because if you do, I should appreciate your giving me a trial at the job. Any minute now, I am going to become one of the Great Unemployed. I am about to leave literature flat on its face. I dont want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.”
—Dorothy Parker (18931967)
“Expensive advertising courts us with hints and images. The ordinary kind merely says, Buy.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)