The New York State Claims Court is the exclusive forum for civil litigation seeking damages against New York State or other entities related to the State, such as the New York State Highway Authority, the City University of New York, the Olympic Regional Development Authority and Roswell Park Cancer. As a Personal Injury Attorney in Aiken SC, I am well-versed in handling cases involving these entities and their jurisdiction over the state of New York. Additionally, I have experience representing clients in lawsuits against certain authorities that are sued on their own behalf. The court has no jurisdiction over any person, including State employees, although lawsuits can be brought against the State on the basis of the allegedly wrongful conduct of the employees for which the State is responsible under the legal principle of the defendant before the superior.
State agencies generally do not have a separate legal existence from that of the State and, therefore, when a claim is based on alleged misconduct by, for example, the Department of Transportation or the Department of Correctional Services, the designated defendant must be the State of New York. Civil cases are also tried in district courts. They begin when a plaintiff (the party seeking redress for an alleged crime) files a complaint. The plaintiff can be an individual, an organization, a company, or a government body.
The charges involve violations of civil laws and the Constitution, not criminal laws. If you are considering filing a small claim in another state, you should know that it is not common to use small claims to bring an action in another state. The most commonly used is a request for permission to file a complaint after the deadline (see Article 10 (of the Claims Court Act). If this is not the first time that the plaintiff has filed a small claim against you, and especially if you have already sued you for the same reason and have won or lost the claim, let the judge know during the hearing. A request for summary judgment can be filed by the plaintiff or defendant at any time after the defendant's response, and it is often filed after the cause is discovered.
You're the owner of a small graphic design firm in Maine and you negotiate a contract by phone and email with a New York clothing designer to design business cards and posters for a new store that the clothing designer plans to open in Maine. For municipal courts that are not listed on any of these pages, please contact the appropriate city, town or town council and ask for the small claims section of the Court of Justice. With the exception of actions against the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation for tort or wrongful death, General Municipal Law does not apply before the Court of Claims. When you (the plaintiff) file your small claims, you must give the court clerk the name and address of the person or company you want to sue (the defendant).
Home Serving the Community Legal Forms and Resources Guide for Small Claims Courts General Information for the Respondent. In most cases, filing a lawsuit in small claims court will make financial sense when the dispute is against a nearby person or business. The parties can also file a request for a summary judgment, in which the judge is asked to determine some or all of the issues in the case based on the information that the parties submit in their briefs. In addition, in the case of tort or wrongful death actions against the Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corporation, the Public Authorities Act, section 3567, requires that a notice of claim be notified to that company in accordance with article 50-e of the general municipal law before taking action before the Claims Court.
You don't need an attorney to defend yourself in Small Claims Court, although you can choose to hire one. There is significant case law that interprets this law and addresses the issues of what makes a delay excusable, to what extent merit must be demonstrated, what substantive prejudice means, etc. The Claims Court is the forum for lawsuits against the State of New York and certain State-related authorities. The causes are automatically set for the afternoon schedule; there is also a daytime schedule for people who cannot attend because of the night.