February 5, 2013
“Civil filings in Westchester continued to decline for the third straight year, a reversal from the historic high in 2009,” shared Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni who serves as Clerk of the Westchester County Supreme Court. “Filings spiked during the economic downturn in 2007, 2008 and 2009 due primarily to increases in consumer credit default cases which have stabilized more recently,” continued Idoni. The Office of the Westchester County Clerk accepts various civil case types including contract, foreclosure, matrimonial, tax certiorari and tort actions. Figures released by the County Clerk indicate that civil filings have declined in each of the last three years following a four year climb to a peak of 29,132 in 2009:
Civil actions commenced in the Westchester County Supreme Court, 2006-2012
|
Year |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
|
Actions |
25,332 |
26,730 |
28,035 |
29,132 |
28,086 |
25,851 |
25,155 |
Over twenty thousand of the civil actions filed in 2012 were electronically filed via the New York State Courts Electronic Filing (NYSCEF) System. Because these filings are stored electronically, scanning costs are eliminated. In addition, storage and retrieval costs are significantly reduced. “With the expansion of electronic filing, we are able to process filings more efficiently and storage costs for paper files have been significantly reduced,” stated Clerk Idoni.
The Legal Division of the Office of the Westchester County Clerk is located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in White Plains and is open between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays. For more information on our Legal Division, please call (914)995-3070 or visit our website at www.WestchesterClerk.com.