Richmond County Court Clerks by Division

Court Clerks vs. the Richmond County Clerk

New York distinguishes between two types of clerks in Richmond County. The first is the Richmond County Clerk, a county official at 130 Stuyvesant Place who acts as clerk of record for Supreme Court civil cases and maintains county records, including land documents, judgments, liens, business certificates, and notary filings. The second type is the court clerk within each court, a judicial officer or administrator who manages the daily operations of that court: calendars, parts, scheduling, forms, docket entries, and direct assistance to litigants at the counter.

The distinction matters because the wrong call goes nowhere useful. If you want to know the next court date for a Family Court custody matter, the Family Court clerk is your contact, not the County Clerk. If you need a certified copy of a Supreme Court judgment, the County Clerk is right. If you want to file a new motion, the Supreme Court clerk's office manages the filing log. The Richmond County Clerk page explains the county records officer role in detail and covers fees, certified copies, and the land documents search portal.

This page covers the operational court clerks: Supreme Court Chief Clerk and term clerks, Civil and Housing Court clerk, Family Court clerk, and Surrogate's Court Chief Clerk. Each section below gives contact information, hours, and the types of tasks each clerk handles. Help Centers are listed separately because they provide procedural guidance and self-help access, which is different from the clerk's filing and record functions.

Richmond County Supreme Court Chief Clerk and Term Clerks

Richmond County Supreme Court at 26 Central Avenue has a layered clerk structure because it operates both a Civil Term and a Criminal Term. The Chief Clerk oversees court administration overall. Each term has its own clerk who manages the day-to-day filing and case flow for that division.

Kenneth Fay serves as Chief Clerk of Richmond County Supreme Court. He oversees the court's administrative operations across both terms. Anthony Karakosta is Clerk of Operations. Together they manage staffing, procedural compliance, and coordination between the Civil and Criminal Terms. Administrative Judge Hon. Raymond L. Rodriguez heads the judiciary side.

John Tenaglia is Clerk of Civil Term. The Civil Term handles higher-dollar civil actions, divorce, matrimonial proceedings, foreclosures, Article 78 proceedings, and e-filed cases through NYSCEF. Litigants with questions about civil case filing, motion submission, note-of-issue procedures, and calendar placement for civil parts contact the Civil Term clerk's office. Filing fees for civil cases, including index numbers and RJI fees, are paid to the Richmond County Clerk, not to the court clerk, but the Civil Term clerk manages the calendar and operational filings once the case is active.

Siobhan H. Shea-Gillespie is Clerk of Criminal Term, located in Room 240. The Criminal Term handles felony prosecutions from indictment through sentencing and concurrent misdemeanor jurisdiction. Litigants, defense attorneys, and prosecutors dealing with felony arraignment, motion practice, trial scheduling, plea proceedings, and sentencing in Richmond County Supreme Court contact the Criminal Term clerk in Room 240. Phone for the Criminal Term is 718-675-8760.

For Supreme Court case searches online, WebCivil Supreme and NYSCEF guest search cover civil dockets and documents. WebCriminal covers pending criminal cases with future court dates. See the Richmond County Supreme Court page for the full search walkthrough and fee table.

Richmond County Civil and Housing Court Clerk

The Richmond County Civil and Housing Court branch is at 927 Castleton Avenue in Staten Island, separate from the St. George courthouse cluster where Supreme Court, Family Court, and Surrogate's Court are located. This physical distance is important: users who arrive at 26 Central Avenue looking for a small claims case or a housing matter will need to go to Castleton Avenue instead.

The Civil Court handles General Civil cases up to $50,000, Housing Part cases including nonpayment, holdover, HP repair, and illegal lockout proceedings, and Small Claims up to $10,000. Evening Small Claims is scheduled on the third Thursday of each month. On those evenings the Small Claims counter is open until 8 p.m., the Small Claims cashier closes at 7:30 p.m., and courtroom hours run 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. with calendar call at 6:30 p.m.

The Civil Court Help Center on the Ground Floor is a key self-help resource. It provides procedural guidance, forms, sample forms, referral information, and help using court technology, but it does not give legal advice. For court matters that carry into the evening, the Landlord and Tenant counter stays open until 7 p.m. on third Thursdays, with the L&T cashier closing at 6:30 p.m. Court access after 4:30 p.m. on regular days is limited to emergency applications.

There is also a virtual Civil and Small Claims Help Center reachable by phone. It is separate from the in-person Help Center and allows litigants to get procedural help without traveling to 927 Castleton Avenue.

WebCivil Local is the online search tool for Civil Court cases. It lets users search by index number, party name, attorney or firm name, or judge name, and view court calendars. A public access terminal is also available in the basement of the Civil Court building for users who want to search on-site. See the Richmond County Civil Court page for a full breakdown of Civil Court jurisdiction and search procedures.

Richmond County Family Court Clerk

Richmond County Family Court is at 18 Richmond Terrace in the St. George court cluster, near the Surrogate's Court at the same address and close to the Staten Island Ferry terminal. Official hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Doors open at 8:30 a.m. and petitions are accepted beginning at 8:30 a.m., giving self-represented litigants time to file before the formal opening of the court day. All visitors pass through magnetometer screening. On-site Spanish interpreters are available; other languages can be arranged on request.

Family Court handles custody, visitation, child support, family offense cases, orders of protection, child abuse and neglect proceedings, foster care review, juvenile delinquency matters, guardianship, and adoption-related proceedings. Many of these records are not broadly public. WebFamily covers only active cases with future court dates and provides no access to confidential case details. Parties, their attorneys, authorized agencies, and people with a court order may be entitled to view more of a specific file.

The court also has a Children's Center at 18 Richmond Terrace, 1st floor, open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Transit access is easy from St. George Terminal on the Staten Island Railway or any Staten Island bus line.

For Family Court case searches, use WebFamily for limited calendar and future-appearance information only. Do not expect custody, abuse/neglect, or juvenile details to appear in public search results. See the Richmond County Family Court page for full jurisdiction and access information.

Richmond County Surrogate's Court Chief Clerk

Richmond County Surrogate's Court is also at 18 Richmond Terrace, sharing the building address with Family Court. The Surrogate is Hon. Matthew J. Titone. Chief Clerk Ronald M. Cerrachio oversees Surrogate's Court operations; Deputy Chief Clerk Alexandra Torres assists with administration. The clerks' offices are on the 2nd Floor, Room 201.

The Records Room is in the basement, Room B-3. Records Room hours are limited: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. This split-hour schedule is important for users planning an in-person visit; arriving during the lunch closure means waiting. Anyone needing to view estate records, wills, old index books, or probate files in person must time their visit around these hours. The Help Center is at 718-675-8508 and can answer questions about estate proceedings, guardianship, probate, and administration procedures without giving legal advice.

The court accepts filings by mail. Send to Surrogate's Court Richmond County, 18 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301. Include contact information and email with mailed papers. NYSCEF electronic filing is also accepted for matters the court has enabled there; free NYSCEF training is available, and the court's law department can assist with calendared matters and conferences at 718-675-8505.

WebSurrogate is the online search for Surrogate's Court estate files. It offers name search, file search, old index search, index book pages, and will search. Documents filed on or after February 19, 2014 have online images; older unrestricted documents must be viewed on public-access computers inside the court. See the Richmond County Surrogate's Court page for full probate search instructions and jurisdiction details.

Richmond County Criminal Court Clerk

New York City Criminal Court in Richmond County handles arraignments, misdemeanor prosecutions, violations, summons matters, and preliminary felony proceedings before cases are indicted into Supreme Court. The Criminal Court and the Supreme Court Criminal Term are distinct. Early-stage criminal records, including arraignment dockets, misdemeanor case files, and bench warrant entries, may be in the Criminal Court side; post-indictment felony records shift to Supreme Court Criminal Term in Room 240 at 26 Central Avenue.

WebCriminal is the official online search for pending criminal cases with future appearance dates. The Defendant Search form requires a first and last name (at least the first two characters of each) or the first five characters of a corporation name. Users can narrow by court: options include Richmond Criminal Court, Richmond Criminal Court - Summons, and Richmond Supreme Criminal Court. Output can appear on the page or as a PDF. WebCriminal covers pending cases only; it is not a complete criminal-history search and does not display sealed records or cases without future appearances.

For certificates of disposition, criminal-case clerks in the relevant court handle those requests. A certificate of disposition confirms the outcome of a criminal charge and is often needed for employment, licensing, or legal purposes. The Richmond County District Attorney's office at 130 Stuyvesant Place handles prosecutorial functions, including victim services, and can be reached at 718-876-6300. DA information helps locate prosecution-side contacts, but it does not replace the court clerk for record copy purposes.

Which Clerk to Contact for What

Richmond County court records are spread across multiple clerks. The routing table below summarizes which office to contact based on what you need. Use it before calling to avoid being transferred multiple times.

When no listed clerk matches your need, use the NY CourtHelp page on getting court records and the eCourts gateway as starting points. Both resources route users to the right tool or office based on case type and record type.

Help Centers and Self-Help Resources in Richmond County

Several Richmond County courts maintain Help Centers designed for self-represented litigants. A Help Center is not the same as the clerk's counter; the Help Center staff explain procedure, provide forms, and point users to resources, but they do not give legal advice, fill out forms for you, or act as your advocate.

The Civil Court Help Center is on the Ground Floor of 927 Castleton Avenue, phone 718-675-8441. The virtual Civil and Small Claims Help Center is at 646-386-5556. These services help with General Civil, Housing, and Small Claims matters. They can explain how to answer a complaint, what a motion deadline means, and how to use the public access terminal in the basement.

The Surrogate's Court Help Center is at 718-675-8508 and helps with estate proceedings, guardianship, probate, and administration. It has DIY form access, free Wi-Fi, court forms, sample forms, handouts, and referrals. Forms are also available through the statewide NY Courts forms library at forms.nycourts.gov.

For broader legal help across all court types, the following resources serve Richmond County:

• NY CourtHelp: statewide self-help portal covering criminal, family, divorce, housing, small claims, court records, forms, and fee waivers.
• LawHelpNY: statewide civil legal aid matching and self-help resource for people who cannot afford a lawyer.
• Legal Services NYC: city-wide civil legal services for housing, family, benefits, consumer, immigration, and other civil matters.
• NYC Bar Legal Referral Service: referral service for people who need a paid attorney.
• NYSBA Lawyer Referral Service: statewide attorney referral; toll-free 1-800-342-3661.

Fee waivers may be available for people with financial hardship in both civil and family matters. Ask the clerk or help center about the in forma pauperis process and the required forms. The fee-waiver motion in Supreme Court civil cases carries no filing fee.

Related Richmond County Clerk and Court Resources

For the county records officer, certified copies, land documents, and Supreme Court filing fees, see the Richmond County Clerk page. For the primary trial court's structure, terms, and e-filing rules, see Richmond County Supreme Court. For probate, estate, and will searches, see Richmond County Surrogate's Court. For General Civil, Housing, and Small Claims, see Richmond County Civil Court. For custody, support, and family proceedings, see Richmond County Family Court.