Surrogate Court

Cashier – deals with Certificates, Certifications, and Record Searches.

Guardianship – Surrogate Court handles Guardianships. There are two kinds of guardianships – those involving a mentally disabled (special needs) minor (those guardianships are known as 17-a), and guardianships of older adults who have become mentally incompetent due to some sort of illness (this is known as Mental Health Law Article 81 guardianships)

Adoptions  – Surrogate Court also handles adoptions, whether of regular adoptions, step-parent and family adoptions and adoptions from foreign countries, involving both infants and older children.

Accountings  – Surrogate’s Court handles accountings filed by executors and administrators of estates and trustees of trusts. Accountings are usually compelled by beneficiaries interested in the trust or an estate, through a Miscellaneous proceeding.

Inventory of Assets – deals with an inventory of assets, which is to be filed no later than 9 months of the date letters issued to fiduciary.

Record Room – Surrogate’s Court records are available on the computers located in the record room and on the computer. It is not possible to access those records online through the internet.

You can request information about an estate from the Surrogate’s Court by writing them a letter with the correct legal name of the person who died, and include a check for $30 made out to the appropriate County Surrogate’s Court, and either a return stamped envelope or your email address to receive the information.

Miscellaneous Proceedings – Surrogate’s Court Miscellaneous department handles Affidavits of Service and Applications to Open Safe Deposit Boxes and Sealed Apartments. It also handles other proceedings, such determining kinship in an estate that has distant relatives, advice and direction, compel fiduciary to account, compel the production of a will or a trust, proceedings by a fiduciary to discover property, proceeding to remove executor, proceeding to remove administrator, proceeding to remove trustee, proceeding by fiduciary of estate to discover property, etc. Fees for those proceedings can be found here.

Here’s more about Surrogate Courts in the New York metropolitan area and its surrounding areas:

New York

Brooklyn

Queens

The Bronx

Staten Island

Nassau

Suffolk

Westchester

If you need an attorney for Surrogate Court, call Albert Goodwin, Esq., a New York estate, guardianship, wills, trust and probate lawyer with over a decade of experience.

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