Kings County Clerk Records Office

About the Kings County Clerk's Office

The Kings County Clerk is one of New York City's five county clerks. Each borough has one. Unlike clerks in many other states, a New York City county clerk is not a stand-alone records office for deeds and most vital records. The role is tied closely to the trial court. The Clerk keeps Supreme Court case records, certifies Supreme Court documents, and serves as the county's jury commissioner. The office sits inside the Supreme Court Building in Downtown Brooklyn, so court users and records seekers walk through the same doors.

The duties are broad. The Clerk files business certificates, also called DBA or "doing business as" filings. It records judgments and liens against Brooklyn block-and-lot parcels. It collects filing fees on court documents and assigns index numbers that open a new civil case. The office also handles notary and Commissioner of Deeds oaths, naturalization records, passport help, and surplus money proceedings. The Clerk's records role overlaps with the courts but is not the same as a FOIL request to a city agency.

What the Kings County Clerk Does

The core job is record keeping for the Supreme Court. When a civil case opens, the Clerk assigns it an index number and starts a file. Every later paper, motion, order, and judgment ties back to that file. The office is the official keeper of those records. It also certifies them, which means it adds a court stamp that proves a copy is true. The Clerk does not decide cases. It manages the paper, the fees, and the filings around them. The office posts updated Clerk Minutes overnight.

• Keeps and certifies Kings County Supreme Court civil case files.
• Assigns index numbers and collects filing fees on court documents.
• Files business certificates, including DBA filings for new ventures.
• Records judgments and liens on Brooklyn block-and-lot parcels.
• Serves as jury commissioner and runs the local Jury Division.
• Handles notary oaths, Commissioner of Deeds, and naturalization records.

Two more services sit close to the records work. The office offers passport help and runs surplus money proceedings, which deal with extra funds left after a foreclosure sale. For incapacitated-person records, files go to Room 122A in the same building. The Kings County Clerk groups all of this on its official site under clear topic headings, so a visitor can find the right counter before arriving.

Office Rooms and Hours

The Clerk's functions are split across a few rooms inside 360 Adams Street. Knowing the room saves a trip. The main Clerk's Office sits in Room 189. The Record Room, where older civil files are pulled, is in Room 079. The Jury Division has its own counter in Room 156 and opens a half hour earlier than the rest. Incapacitated-person records are filed separately in Room 122A. Hours hold steady through the week, though the Jury Division door opens at 8:30 AM.

How to Request a Certified Copy

A certified copy is a court-stamped copy that proves a document is true. Courts, banks, and agencies often want a certified copy, not a plain printout. For civil Supreme Court matters in Brooklyn, certified copies come from the Kings County Clerk. A free online printout from a state portal will not carry the stamp. The steps below cover a standard civil request at the Clerk's counter or by mail.

1. Find the index number. Civil index numbers run in NNNNNN/YYYY format. If you do not have it, use WebCivil Supreme to look up the case by party name first.
2. Identify the exact document you need, such as a judgment, an order, or a full case file, and note the party names.
3. Go to the Clerk's Office in Room 189, or send a written request by mail to 360 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Bring a government ID.
4. Pay the per-page copy fee plus the certification fee. The counter accepts standard payment; mail requests should confirm the total first.
5. Pick up the certified copy at the counter, or wait for it to arrive by mail if you filed the request remotely.

For older files, staff may pull the record from the Record Room in Room 079 before certifying it. Build in extra time when a file is archived. Criminal certificates of disposition are a separate product and come from the Criminal Term Records Room at 320 Jay Street, not from the County Clerk.

Records Request Details

A clean request moves faster. Whether you write a letter or fill a counter slip, the Clerk needs enough detail to find one specific file out of millions. The fields below are the ones a Kings County records request should include. The index number does the most work, so list it first when you have it.

Where the Clerk's Office Sits

The Kings County Clerk shares a building with the Supreme Court Civil Term. The address is 360 Adams Street, at Adams and Joralemon Street, just off Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. The same building also holds the Public Administrator's Office and a Guardianship Assistance Office. The court cluster nearby is dense and walkable. The Clerk's records counters sit inside this Supreme Court Building.

Public transit is the practical way in. Visitors can take any bus to Borough Hall, the 2, 3, 4, 5, or R train to Court Street/Borough Hall, or the A, C, F, or R train to Jay Street. There is no public parking on-site, so plan for a nearby paid garage if you must drive.

Kings County Clerk Fees

Fees apply to copies, certifications, filings, and certain court services. Some amounts are set by statute and some by the office. The table below pulls the figures confirmed in the research record. A few civil filing and copy fees are set on the statewide New York Courts fee schedule and should be confirmed with the Clerk before payment, since rates change.

Family offense summonses carry no service fee, an exception worth noting. Estate fees in Surrogate's Court are figured under SCPA § 2402 based on the documents filed and the size of the estate, so two estates rarely pay the same total.

Online Case Search and Filings

Before a counter visit, most people start online. The Clerk keeps the official files, but the public-facing search runs through state portals. For civil Supreme Court cases in Kings County, use WebCivil Supreme. It supports Index, Party, Attorney/Firm, and Justice search modes and lets a user limit results to Kings County. The New York eCourts hub links all the state case-lookup tools from one page. These tools are free, but again, they do not issue certified copies.

E-filing runs through NYSCEF, the New York State Courts Electronic Filing system. Civil cases that have opted into e-filing accept and show documents through NYSCEF. The Clerk processes those filings on the court side. For agency administrative records, rather than case files, New York runs a separate channel through Open FOIL NY, the statewide gateway for Freedom of Information Law requests. The image below shows that gateway.

The Open FOIL NY gateway is the front door for FOIL requests to state agencies, separate from court case files held by the Clerk.

The split matters. Court case records are governed by Judiciary Law § 255 and court rules, so they come from the Clerk or a records room. Agency administrative records run under FOIL. A FOIL portal will not return a Supreme Court case file.

Related Kings County Resources

For full case files, see court records. For the trial court itself, see the Supreme Court page. Estate and probate filings appear on the Surrogate's Court page. For deeds, business filings, and FOIL basics, see public records. Divorce filings are covered on the marriage and divorce records page.