Are divorce records public in New York?
No. New York seals the papers in a divorce for one hundred years. Only the two spouses, their attorneys and anyone with a court order can read the file, and the county clerk will not show it to anyone else. What is public is thin: that a case exists, the names, the index number and the date. Your agreement, your finances and anything about the children are not. A mediated divorce adds a second layer, because the sessions themselves are confidential and nothing said in them is filed.
What is and is not on the record
A common reason people put off divorcing is a fear that the details become public. In New York they do not.
- Sealed for 100 years. Domestic Relations Law §235 bars the clerk from letting anyone other than a party or their attorney see the papers in a matrimonial action, without a court order, for one hundred years.
- What anyone can find. The index of cases: names, index number, county and filing date. Some commercial sites republish that. The settlement, the financial disclosure and the parenting plan are not in it.
- The judgment. The Judgment of Divorce is in the sealed file. A certificate of divorce, which only confirms the marriage ended, can be obtained by the spouses when they need proof, for example to remarry.
- Mediation. What is said in sessions stays there. Only the final agreement is filed, and it goes into the sealed file like everything else.
Domestic Relations Law §235: confidentiality of matrimonial records.