New York Court Records: How to Search eCourts, the $95 CHRS Fee, and Both Sealing Tracks

New York does not run one search box for its court records. It runs a suite of related tools, called eCourts, that split by court level and, critically, by whether a case is still pending or already disposed. A criminal case that has already been resolved will not turn up in the free tool most people reach for first, and knowing that gap in advance saves a frustrating search.

New York also runs two entirely separate mechanisms for sealing a criminal record, one automatic and one that has to be requested, and confusing the two leads people to the wrong process.

Information last verified on 2026-08-10. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This guide is part of a broader look at court records by state; for the mechanics of federal versus state versus county searches generally, see how to look up court records and are court records public.

The eCourts Suite: Split by Court Type and Case Status

New York's statewide search tools live under one umbrella, eCourts, reached through iapps.courts.state.ny.us, but the umbrella covers several distinct components that do not all work the same way.

WebCivil Local covers civil cases from the local Civil Courts across New York State: 61 City Courts, the District Courts in Nassau and Suffolk Counties, and the New York City Civil Courts. WebCivil Supreme covers both active and disposed civil Supreme Court cases across all 62 counties. WebFamily covers active Family Court cases in all 62 counties, plus Integrated Domestic Violence courts. eTrack allows email tracking of civil and criminal case activity.

WebCriminal is the one with the coverage gap that catches people most often. It covers only pending criminal cases with future appearance dates, and only in selected courts of criminal jurisdiction. A disposed criminal case, meaning one that already resulted in a conviction, dismissal, or other final outcome, will not show up in WebCriminal regardless of how it is searched. New York's separate, paid CHRS product, described below, is the tool built for disposed criminal history instead.

New York's roughly 1,200 Town and Village Justice Courts are also absent from the eCourts component list. Their records generally require contacting the individual justice court directly, though CHRS's own coverage description does include criminal dispositions originating from Town and Village courts within its statewide reach, so that data is not entirely invisible online, just outside the free eCourts suite specifically.

CHRS: New York's Paid Statewide Criminal History Search

For a name-based search that reaches disposed criminal convictions statewide, New York's Office of Court Administration offers the Criminal History Record Search (CHRS). The search costs $95.00, payable online through Direct Access or by mail with a check or money order (a $20.00 charge applies for a returned check), and results are not certified: OCA specifically notes CHRS results "should not be confused with a Certificate of Disposition."

CHRS's search mechanism is strict, based on an exact match of both name and date of birth, and OCA states plainly that variations in either are not reported. A minor misspelling or a slightly wrong birth date can therefore produce a false negative on a real record, the opposite failure mode from a name-based search that returns too many possible matches.

CHRS's own coverage description and limitations list are worth reading in full before relying on a result. Coverage includes open, pending, and conviction records originating from County, Supreme, City, Town, and Village courts across all 62 counties, but sealed records are never disclosed. Town and Village Court disposition data is not available at all for the period May 1991 through 2002, and is limited for 2002 through 2007; all courts have reported to OCA since May 2007. CHRS also does not include Family, Civil, or federal court records, does not include cases with a Governor's Pardon, does not report a single misdemeanor conviction more than ten years old under New York's Misdemeanor Redemption Policy, does not report dormant, undisposed cases inactive for five or more years with no outstanding warrant, and is not a nationwide or FBI check. Marijuana convictions under Penal Law 221.x that have been vacated, dismissed, sealed, and expunged are excluded, and OCA states that inquiring about them is an unlawful discriminatory practice.

Open Courts and Records Access: Judiciary Law Sections 4, 255, and 255-b

New York's general presumption that courts operate in public comes from Judiciary Law section 4: "The sittings of every court within this state shall be public, and every citizen may freely attend the same." The statute permits a court to exclude the public only from a specific, enumerated list of proceeding types, including divorce, seduction, rape, certain other sexual-offense prosecutions, and related matters, and even then jurors, witnesses, and court officers remain present. Judiciary Law section 4 speaks to open court proceedings specifically; it is the starting point for New York's open-courts principle rather than a records-request statute in itself. The records side rests on two other statutes.

Under Judiciary Law section 255, a clerk must, on request and on payment of the fees allowed by law, "diligently search the files, papers, records and dockets in his office" and then either make and certify the transcript or certificate sought, or certify that a document of the description given cannot be found. Judiciary Law section 255-b adds a standing right of inspection: "A docket-book, kept by a clerk of a court, must be kept open, during the business hours fixed by law, for search and examination by any person."

Those two sections, not the Freedom of Information Law, are what a New York court-records request actually runs on. The courts are not an "agency" subject to FOIL, and the state's Committee on Open Government has advised that "although the courts are not subject to FOIL, most court records are available to the public pursuant to other provisions of law. Notable are §§255 and 255-b of the Judiciary Law." A FOIL request aimed at a court clerk is therefore the wrong instrument. The section 255 search-and-certify request is the right one.

Two Sealing Tracks: CPL 160.57 and CPL 160.59

New York runs two separate sealing mechanisms for criminal records under the Criminal Procedure Law, and they are not interchangeable.

CPL 160.57 is New York's automatic Clean Slate track. Under the statute, eligible misdemeanor convictions become sealable once "at least three years have passed from the defendant's release from incarceration or the imposition of sentence if there was no sentence of incarceration," and eligible felony convictions become sealable once "at least eight years have passed from the date the defendant was last released from incarceration for the sentence of the conviction eligible for sealing or from the imposition of sentence if there was no sentence of incarceration." In both branches, a sentence that carried no incarceration starts the clock at sentencing. Sex offenses and sexually violent offenses are excluded outright, and Class A felonies are excluded except for Class A drug felonies specifically, which remain eligible. A person cannot be currently on probation or parole, and cannot have a pending subsequent criminal charge in New York, to qualify. The statute also protects the process itself: "No defendant shall be required or permitted to waive eligibility for sealing pursuant to this section as part of a plea of guilty." New York's Office of Court Administration is required to complete sealing of pre-enactment-eligible convictions within three years of the law's effective date, consistent with a rollout period that runs from the law's November 16, 2024 effective date to a November 16, 2027 build-out target.

CPL 160.59 is the older, separate, petition-based sealing mechanism, and its terms are considerably narrower than the Clean Slate track. CPL 160.59(4) permits a court to seal no more than two eligible offenses, of which not more than one may be a felony. CPL 160.59(5) requires that at least ten years have passed since the imposition of sentence on the person's latest conviction or, where a sentence of incarceration was imposed, since the latest release from incarceration. CPL 160.59(1)(a) narrows the pool further by defining an eligible offense to exclude sex offenses under Penal Law article 130, offenses under article 263, felony offenses under article 125, violent felony offenses under Penal Law 70.02, class A felonies, and any offense for which sex offender registration is required. The key point for a records search is not to conflate the two: CPL 160.57 sealing happens automatically once eligibility is reached, while CPL 160.59 sealing requires the person to file a petition. For a full eligibility walkthrough of both tracks, see New York expungement laws, which this page does not duplicate.

Certified Copies

Certified copies of New York court documents are generally requested from the County Clerk or Supreme Court Clerk for the county where the case was filed. This is the transaction Judiciary Law section 255 describes: on request and on payment of the fees allowed by law, the clerk searches the files, papers, records and dockets and certifies the resulting transcript or certificate, or certifies that the document cannot be found. Confirm the current fee and process directly with that office, since fee specifics were not itemized in the sources reviewed for this page.

Using New York Court Records the Right Way

eCourts and CHRS are both built for checking your own case or a matter you are personally involved in, not for compiling a background file on someone else, and CHRS's strict exact-match search makes it a poor fit for casual screening in any case. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, most arrests and civil judgments age off a consumer report after seven years, but criminal convictions are carved out of that limit under 15 U.S.C. section 1681c(a)(5) and can be reported indefinitely unless the record has been sealed under CPL 160.57 or 160.59. Anyone assembling public court records for a hiring or housing decision may be acting as a consumer reporting agency under federal law, and the FTC has enforced this directly: in 2023 it reached a $5.8 million settlement with TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate over marketing public-records reports for tenant and employee screening without following FCRA requirements. Neither eCourts nor CHRS is a substitute for an FCRA-compliant background check when the decision involves employment or housing, and CHRS itself is not certified and explicitly should not be confused with an official Certificate of Disposition.

Related Resources

Court Records by State covers the full 50-state picture. See also How to Look Up Court Records, Are Court Records Public?, New York Expungement Laws, New York Background Check Laws, New York Warrant Search, and New York Public Records Laws.

Disclaimer

This article explains how New York's court records tools are organized. It is general legal information, not legal advice. Portal features and fees change without notice; verify current details with nycourts.gov before relying on them. Consult a New York-licensed attorney for advice about a specific case.

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Last updated: 2026-08-10. Portal facts and fees reflect their published status as of August 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I search a disposed New York criminal case on eCourts for free?

No. WebCriminal, the eCourts component for criminal cases, only covers pending cases with future court dates in selected courts. A disposed criminal case requires the paid, statewide Criminal History Record Search (CHRS) instead.

How much does New York's CHRS criminal history search cost?

$95.00 as of this writing, payable online through Direct Access or by mail with a check or money order. Results are not certified and should not be confused with an official Certificate of Disposition.

Why did my CHRS search come back with no results even though I know the person has a record?

CHRS matching is based on an exact match of both name and date of birth. Any variation in either, such as a misspelling or a slightly different birth date on file, will prevent a real match from being reported.

Are New York Town and Village Court records searchable online?

Not through the free eCourts suite, which does not include the roughly 1,200 Town and Village Justice Courts. CHRS's statewide coverage description does include criminal dispositions from Town and Village courts, though its own historical coverage gaps for that data are significant for 1991 through 2007.

What is the difference between CPL 160.57 and CPL 160.59 sealing in New York?

CPL 160.57 is New York's automatic Clean Slate sealing track, triggered once statutory waiting periods and eligibility conditions are met, with no petition required. CPL 160.59 is an older, separate mechanism requiring the person to file a petition. Under CPL 160.59(4) and (5) it reaches no more than two eligible offenses, not more than one of them a felony, and only after at least ten years have passed since sentencing on the latest conviction or, where a sentence of incarceration was imposed, since the latest release from incarceration.

What is New York's general legal basis for open courts?

Judiciary Law section 4 establishes that the sittings of every New York court are public, with narrow, specifically enumerated exceptions. It addresses courtroom proceedings, not records requests. Access to the records themselves comes from Judiciary Law section 255, which requires a clerk to search the files and dockets and certify the result on request and payment of the statutory fees, and section 255-b, which keeps a clerk's docket-book open for search and examination by any person during business hours. The courts are not subject to FOIL.