The Queens County Surrogate’s Court continues to require more time than usual to review submissions, advising E-Filers that it will take up to eight weeks to review documents. I recently E-Filed a Petition for Administration in Queens and received the following auto-generated email.

Documents in the above matter which were filed through the New York State Courts E-Filing system (NYSCEF) have been received by the Surrogate’s Court, Queens County and have now been uploaded into our filing system. All filings will be reviewed by department personnel in the order of the date they have been uploaded.

PLEASE ALLOW THE DEPARTMENT EIGHT (8) WEEKS TO REVIEW YOUR DOCUMENTS.

***GIVEN THE VOLUME OF FILINGS AND TO ENSURE OUR STAFF IS PROCESSING MATTERS IN THE MOST EFFICIENT MANNER POSSIBLE, INQUIRIES CONCERNING THE STATUS OF PENDING MATTERS WILL NOT BE RESPONDED TO DURING THIS TIME PERIOD***

You will be contacted by e-mail if further documents or corrections are necessary. If you have not done so already, please make sure a proposed decree has been submitted to the court.

Forms, templates, checklists and other resources – including information regarding new court procedures due to Covid-19 – can be found at our website at:

http://ww2.nycourts.gov/courts/11jd/surrogates/index.shtml

DO NOT REPLY TO THIS E-MAIL AS THIS ADDRESS IS USED SOLELY TO ISSUE NOTIFICATIONS

I received this same email back in January after E-Filing documents in a separate matter.

Realistically, however, eight weeks may not be enough time for the court to review and process submissions. Kings County and New York County also continue to experience delays in processing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.