New York Surrogate's Court

The Surrogate's Court of New York is a specialized probate court within New York's unified court system, handling all probate and estate proceedings, including probated wills, the estates of people who die intestate, unclaimed property matters and adoptions. One surrogate judge sits in each of New York's 62 counties except New York County (Manhattan) and Kings County (Brooklyn), which each have two, and surrogates serve ten-year terms outside the five New York City counties, where they serve fourteen-year terms. In smaller counties the County Court judge may also serve as surrogate, and the court has periodically faced reform proposals, most notably after the 2005 removal of former Brooklyn Surrogate Michael Feinberg following a corruption scandal. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/