New York Court Records: Difference between revisions

:Prior to July 1, 1847, the New York courts were organized largely as they had been during the British colonial period. Common-law actions and proceedings, usually involving demands for payment of debts or damages, or recovery of real or personal property or its value, lay within the jurisdiction of the colony- and statewide Supreme Court of Judicature, established in 1691, and the county courts of common pleas, likewise established in 1691. The Court of Chancery, established in 1683 and reestablished in 1704, had jurisdiction over equity matters, including trusts for legally incompetent persons such as widows and minors, and starting in 1787, over divorce and separation proceedings.

:Criminal jurisdiction over felonies was exercised by the courts of oyer and terminer and courts of general sessions sitting in each county. Criminal jurisdiction over misdemeanors was exercised by courts of special sessions held by justices of the peace in towns and police justices in cities and villages.