Judiciary of New York
judiciary
The judiciary of the State of New York (officially the New York State Unified Court System) is the judicial branch of the New York state government, comprising all the courts of the State of New York (excluding extrajudicial administrative courts).
The Court of Appeals, sitting in Albany and consisting of seven judges, is the state's highest court. The Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court is the principal intermediate appellate court. The New York State Supreme Court is the trial court of general jurisdiction in civil cases statewide and in criminal cases in New York City. Outside New York City, the 57 individual County Courts hear felony criminal cases. There are a number of local courts in different parts of the state, including the New York City Civil Court and New York City Criminal Court.
By one estimate, debt collection actions are 25% of all lawsuits in state courts. The system is administered by the Chief Judge of the State of New York, working with the Chief Administrative Judge, other administrative judges, the Office of Court Administration, and other agencies.
Courts
In general, the judicial system is composed of the appellate courts and the trial courts, consisting of the superior courts and the local courts.
The appellate courts are the:
Court of Appeals
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court
appellate terms of the Supreme Court
appellate sessions of the County Court
The superior courts are the:
Supreme Court
County Court
specialized courts (Family Court, Surrogate's Court, Court of Claims)
And the local courts:
District Court
New York City courts (NYC Civil Court, NYC Criminal Court)
city courts
justice courts (town and village courts)
There are also other tribunals that are not normally considered part of the New York State Unified Court System or the judiciary proper.
The public source identifies “Judiciary of New York” as judiciary. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Judiciary, York and judiciary.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Judiciary of New York”, the useful work is to connect “judiciary” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6303129. VIAF identifies the subject as 123187524. The Library of Congress control number is n82259063. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Judiciary of New York” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.