New Jersey Superior Court

New Jersey Superior Courts are the general jurisdiction courts for the state. They are local courts spread among counties or judicial regions called vicinages. In most cases, Superior Courts use a jury instead of just a judge to decide verdicts. Superior Courts also hear appeals from the lower Municipal Courts.

The types of cases heard in Superior Court are civil cases of less than $15,000 and small claims of $3,000 or less. For landlord/tenant disputes, they can go as high as $5,000 for security deposit issues. These courts have exclusive domain over domestic relations cases, juvenile cases, criminal appeals, and felonies.

Along with the Superior Courts, New Jersey established The Superior Court Clerk's Office to manage and support all Superior Courts. On the New Jersey Courts website, they list each county, and the links show Superior Court courthouse locations, directions, phone numbers, and email address to ask questions. They also show the hours of operation and quick links to things for patrons like volunteer and job opportunities, representing yourself in court, juror information, ADA accommodations, customer service, news and other resources for users of the court.

Superior Courts are the "local courts" for the state. There is at least one per county. Judges for Superior Courts are selected by the Governor of the state, and the state Senate confirms them. They serve an initial seven-year term then they may be reappointed for tenure and serve until they reach the age of 70 when they must retire. Superior Courts are spread over 15 judicial regions called vicinages. Each vicinage is listed on the New Jersey Courts website with a map.

For the last year calculated, Superior Courts saw 819,904 filings. Of that total, 44,816 were for criminal actions, 503,650 were for civil suits, and 271,438 were for family division court cases.