New York State Village Justice Courts that Have Closed

All towns in New York State must have a justice court. The exception is New York City where traffic tickets are adjudicated in the Traffic Violations Bureau. Another exception is Nassau County and Suffolk County. In these counties, some towns have a justice court and some towns have their traffic tickets adjudicated in a county traffic agency.

Within many towns there are villages, which can form their own government and establish their own justice court. The village justice court would have jurisdiction over the entire village. The town court would have jurisdiction over the rest of the town, outside of the village. Most villages do not have their own court. Establishing a justice court is optional for villages. If they create their own court, it is mostly because they want to ensure that revenue produced by village cases goes to the village and is not shared with the rest of the town. As of March of 2025, there were approximately 930 town courts and approximately 250 village courts. Since around the year 2000, many village courts have closed. This is mostly due to the diminishing population in upstate New York. Lower population means less cases and less cases means less court revenue. Eventually, running a justice court is no longer cost effective. In some instances, the entire village dissolves and in some instances, it is just the village court. The following is a non-exhaustive list of village courts that closed since 2010.

Village	Town	County	Year Closed	Court or entire village?
Freeville	Dryden	Tompkins	2024	Court
Ellenville	Wawarsing	Ulster	2022	Court
Painted Post	Erwin	Steuben	2020	Court
Ravena	Coeymans	Albany	2020	Court
Deposit	Deposit & Sanford	Delaware & Broome	2020	Court
Pawling	Pawling	Dutchess	2021	Court
West Carthage	Champion	Jefferson	2015	Court
Alexandria Bay	Alexandria	Jefferson	2021	Court
South Nyack	Orangetown	Rockland	2022	Village
North Syracuse	Cicero & Clay	Onondaga	2018	Court
St. Johnsville	St Johnsville	Montgomery	2017	Court
Lowville	Lowville	Lewis	2021	Court
Valatie	Kinderhook	Columbia	2010	Court
Silver Creek	Hanover	Chautauqua	2021	Court
Voorheesville	New Scotland	Albany	2014	Court
Ellicottville	Ellicottville	Cattaraugus	2019	Court
Rouses Point	Champlain	Clinton	2017	Court
Cobleskill	Cobleskill	Schoharie	2012	Court
Liberty	Liberty	Sullivan	2011	Court

When a village court is closed, all pending cases are transferred to the town court. In some instances, there are two town courts that take over. This happens when the village is within two towns. If you have an old ticket that needs to be cleared up, and it is returnable to any of the village courts that closed, you can contact the Benjamin Goldman Law Office. We have dealt with this type of scenario plenty of times and should be able to help you navigate to a successful resolution.