The Queens County Clerk's office is located in the Queens County Supreme Court Building at 80-11 Sutphin Blvd., Jamaica, New York. The Queens County City Register is located down the block at 90-15/27 Sutphin Blvd. To get there by subway, take the E/F to Sutphin Blvd., walk one block west. To get there by car, take the Long Island expressway to the Van Wyck Expressway south, to Hillside Avenue. From Brooklyn, you can take the Belt Parkway to the Van Wyk Expressway, and then to the Hillside Avenue exit. Make a left on Hillside Avenue go one mile and make a right on Sutphin Blvd. There are two private parking lots on the right. These are the best places to park. If they are full go a little farther down on Sutphin Blvd. and there will be another lot on your left.

Queens County Clerk

The Queens County Clerk's Office is on the ground floor of the Supreme Court building. They are very strict about security. No cameras, tape players or electronics allowed. Leave these items at home or office. Don't forget a pad and pencil. After you clear the security check, make a left and the Clerk's Office is at the end of the hall on the right, room 106.

Enter the room and on your right will be the PVB and ECB judgments on a large counter. These are straight alphabetical. Further into the room, you will see the judgment computers at "Section 5". These computers work the same as in the other boroughs and go back to April 1st of 1990. For a tutorial on the judgment computers, see Chapter Two, "Filing Systems". To make an earlier search you must check the index books. These books are in the middle of the room. They are divided into Individuals and Corporations. The search is by last name, then first letter of the first name. Second letter of the last name divides the research into columns. Start with the current books at the service counter and work your way back with the books in the middle of the room. Each book covers a certain time period. Once you have found a judgment, you can go downstairs to get a copy of it. Mechanics liens are by block and lot and located on the counter across from the PVB judgment books. Next to these books are the books of block index of liens. If you have a property in mind, get the block and lot and make your search this way. If you don't know the block and lot, the tax assessors office [in the City Register's building] will be able to help you if you give them an address.

The Queens County Clerk has a new computer system to index cases. This computer went on-line in 1994. The terminal is located near "Section 6". The instructions for use of this computer are in Chapter Two, "Filing Systems". To check a case before 1994, you have to use the index to clerk's minutes books. To look up a Supreme Court case by plaintiff only, use the alphabetical clerk's minutes. There is a separate book for the first letter of the plaintiff's last name. You must scan an entire book checking the column which has the second letter of the last name. This is pretty time consuming, but it is the only way to search these records.

The Queens County Clerk has a new computer indexing system for business records. The terminal is located by Section #5 and instructions for use of this computer are in Chapter Two, "Filing Systems". To search before the computer went on-line, you must use the index books. Corporate record index books are on racks in the middle of the room. The index is by first-letter book, second letter-column. Business names and partnership records are better checked by going to the business name card file at the service counter and asking the clerk to look up the name.

If you want to obtain a litigation file, corporate record or judgment, go downstairs to the record room. One side of the record room is for lawsuits and the other side is for everything else. Fill out a requisition and wait. There are plenty of tables and copying machines.

You will find the Surrogate's Court Record Room on the seventh floor of this building. The record room has a computer to access records from 1/1/87 and card files for earlier estates.

Queens County Register

The Queens County Register's Office is just two blocks down the street from the Supreme Court Building. The Register is on the second floor, left off the elevator. To research real property go to the back of the large room to the Fairtax computer terminals. To see a tutorial on this system, see Chapter Two, "Filing Systems". To search property prior to the computer's index, the block and lot books are across from the computers. To obtain copies of the deed, etc, go to the requisition desk and fill out a form. You will get a microfiche which you can then review on a reader. Copy machines are available.

In a room adjacent to the main record room is a smaller room where Uniform Commercial Code Financing Statements (UCC's) and Federal Tax Liens are kept. The Federal Tax Lien card files are indexed alphabetically, but starting in January of 1994 they are indexed in the Fairtax System. The UCC's are indexed on the Fairtax computer since January 2, 1991. Older UCC's are filed in alphabetical order in the large mechanical rotating file cabinet against the wall.

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