The Supreme Court of the State of New York is one of several New York
State trial courts in which cases originate. The court sits in each of
New York State's 62 counties, although some of the smaller counties share judges with
neighboring counties. All but the most populous counties are grouped into judicial districts from which the justices are
elected, unwritten agreements allotting the justice seats among the counties of the district. (See List of New York counties.) In New York, unlike most
other states, the Supreme
Court is not the highest court of the state - which is instead called the Court of Appeals of New York; this nomenclature
sometimes causes confusion.
To add to the confusion, the court's New York
County location is distributed across several buildings in Manhattan. The
civil branch is at several buildings near Foley Square: the main New York County Courthouse building at 60 Centre Street (see photo), and three others
at 80 Centre Street (across Worth Street), 111 Centre Street, and 71 Thomas Street. The criminal branch is at 100 Centre Street,
shared with the Manhattan Criminal Court, the Office of the District Attorney and other agencies, and at 111 Centre
Street, shared with the New York County Civil Court. This is also true of the Supreme Court in Kings County and in Richmond County. In Richmond County several "Parts" of the Supreme Court are located in the
former U.S. Navy Home Port (each Part is usually where one Supreme Court judge sits).
The State Supreme Court handles large civil cases throughout New York State, and also handles felony criminal cases within the five counties that make up New York City. Outside New York City, the County
Courts handle felony criminal cases. Smaller civil cases and less serious criminal cases are handled in other courts: the
Civil
and Criminal Courts in New York City; County
and District Courts in Nassau and Suffolk
Counties on Long Island; and County, City, Town and Village Courts in the rest of the state. Certain specialized matters
are handled by other courts; for example, probate matters are heard in Surrogate's
Court, juvenile delinquency and child custody matters in Family Court, and claims
against the state in the Court of Claims. Although the New York Supreme Court in theory has unlimited general original
jurisdiction, in practice it does not normally hear cases that are within
the powers of a New York state trial court of limited jurisdiction such as County Court or N.Y.C. Civil Court.
Appeals from Supreme Court decisions go to the Appellate
Division, which is New York's intermediate appellate court
divided into four appellate departments, decisions of these
intermediate appellate courts are only binding in each appellate
department. New York's highest appellate court is the Court of Appeals; appeals are taken from the four departments to the Court of Appeals; decisions
from the Court of Appeals are binding throughout the state.
New York Supreme Court justices are elected to 14-year terms. In practice, most of the power of selecting judges belongs to
local political party organizations. Regardless of the term for which
they are elected,justices retire at the end of the year in which they reach the age of seventy years, a replacement being chosen
to a fresh 14-year term that November with effect from the start of the following year.
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