Determining Federal/State Court Records
1.Determine whether you need to retrieve State/Federal court records. To determine if a court is a State/Federal court:
a.Look at the caption (i.e., name of the court on a pleading).
•If the court is Circuit or Superior Court, it’s a State court.
•If it is District court, it’s a Federal Court.
•Appellate courts may be State or Federal and will have the name of the state in the title of the court, New York Supreme Court, or New York Appellate Court, for example.
b.Look at the laws that the court deals in order to determine if they are State or Federal laws. Divorce laws for example are State laws and bankruptcy laws are Federal, so divorce cases are heard in State court and bankruptcy cases in Federal court.
•Check the list of federal courts provided by the United States Courts systems, to see if the court is listed as a federal court. Continue reading