Court Actions and Court Minutes

Information

Court Actions and Court Minutes

The Suffolk County Clerk also serves as the Clerk of Supreme and County Court. The Court Actions Division has been divided into two areas of expertise: Criminal and Civil.

The Criminal Court Actions Unit only handles Felony Level criminal court actions, highway takings (condemned property for purposes of new highways and other condemnations) and associated maps.

Misdemeanors and violations are handled by the District Court or the various Justice Courts.

The Civil Court Actions Unit processes all civil court action commenced in Suffolk County as well as confessions of Judgment, Judgments of Foreclosure and Judgments of Divorce, Veteran's Discharges, County Appointments, Oaths of Office, Firemen's Exempt Certificates, Street Name Changes, Designation of Restricted Highways, Local Town Emergency Orders and other miscellaneous documents required or authorized by law to be filed in this Office.

Lis Pendens and other recordables, such as name changes are also processed by this division. Requisitions, subpoena responses and requests by mail are the responsibility of the Civil Court Actions Unit.

Court Minutes

Court Minutes is a list of various court documents/papers filed under a unique index number assigned to the case by the County Clerk’s Office. These documents may be received from attorneys, involved parties, courts, process servers, etc. Anyone can file a document/paper under an index number. Minutes are public information but the physical documents are not. If the file is sealed by the court then a court order is necessary to see the actual papers. If the file isn’t sealed then the file and it’s contents are public record.

Some exceptions to this general rule are:

Matrimonial Actions can only be viewed by: the parties, the attorneys of record or someone with a court order.
Incompetency proceedings can only be viewed by the: guardian, the court examiner or someone with a court order.
If not sealed by the court and not one of the above exceptions then anyone can view the file but you must come to Riverhead to do that.
Up to a maximum of 10 files per day may be viewed.

To view Court Minutes On-Line please visit Court Actions Index and Minutes. To search by Index Number, enter the two digit year followed by the five digit index number separated by a space. For example; 04 12345.

Definitions

Index Number	The unique number assigned to a court action
Plaintiff	The individual who brings a legal action
Defendant	The individual required to respond to a legal action or suit
Date	The date the index number was purchased
Court Type	C = County Court; S = Supreme Court;
N/A	= the information was not completed on the application

For a listing of telephone numbers for the chambers of a Supreme Court Justice or for the Chief Clerk’s telephone number please click the link below:

Supreme Court Justice or Chief Clerk

To find out how to proceed in other Courts in Suffolk County, please visit their sites through the links listed below:

U.S. Bankruptcy Court

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

All Other Courts

Use the New York State Unified Court System's Court Locator at http://www.nycourts.gov/courts/index.shtml.

Useful links

Domestic Violence Court - Can be accessed from the Unified Court System

Glossary of Legal Terms - New York State Unified Court System

New York State Unified Court System - Find open court cases for any Civil Supreme Court case in 62 Counties.

Suffolk County Bar Association - The SCBA is the governing body for attorneys practicing in Suffolk County and admitted in New York State.

Rev. 7/24/15