Organizational Structure of the Newark Municipal Court

The Criminal Division:
The Criminal Division prepares and processes all disorderly and petty disorderly complaints and holds trial jurisdiction over those complaints.  The Criminal Customer Service window located in room 207 is open five days a week from8:30am to 3:45pm.  Staff can answer general questions regarding criminal matters, schedule court dates, and accept for filing citizen complaints.  

The Violations Bureau:
The Violations Bureau processes all traffic summonses issued by various law enforcement agencies within the City of Newark.  All payments made to the Court for violations in both criminal and moving and parking matters are made at the cashier window located on the first floor just to the left of the Court’s entrance.  

Customer Service:
The Customer Service Division is comprised of the Court’s Call Center, Correspondence Unit, and Traffic Customer Service Room 105.  

•    The Call Center handles up to 1,000 calls per day.  The Court strives to reduce wait time to better serve customers.  To achieve this, the Court has added several prompts with general information so that many questions can be answered without the need to speak to a live representative.  The Call Center phone service provides information in both English and Spanish.

•    The Correspondence Unit, located in room 305, tracks, monitors and responds to the thousands of pieces of correspondence received each month.   

•    The Traffic Customer Service Window is located in room 105.  Staff answers general questions regarding parking and moving tickets and schedules court when necessary.  Bail refunds are also handled in this location.

Court:
The Newark Municipal Court has seven courtrooms.  Court sessions take place five days a week, with sessions in the arraignment court occurring on weekends and holidays as well.  Morning sessions are scheduled at 8:30am and 11:30am, afternoon sessions begin at 4:00pm.

1)    Courtroom 101 hears moving and parking violations five days a week in the morning sessions; and criminal matters five days a week in the afternoon sessions.

2)    Courtroom 103 is the conflict court.  A visiting judge and visiting municipal prosecutor sit in this court twice a week to hear all matters with City of Newark employees as defendants.  School attendance cases are also held in this court.

3)    Courtroom 108 hears only moving and parking violations in both the morning and afternoon sessions.  DWI matters are scheduled here on Tuesday mornings.

4)    Courtroom 202 hears criminal matters five days a week for morning sessions.  Afternoon sessions in this court include criminal matters via video conference from the Essex County jail in addition to in person defendants.

5)    Courtroom 222 is the arraignment court.  Defendants are heard in this court either in person or via video conferencing from the Essex County jail in order to be arraigned on charges brought against them.

6)    Courtroom A201 is the trial court for City Ordinance cases.  Housing matters are heard in this courtroom along with fare evasion and burglar alarm tickets.

7)    Courtroom A301 is another criminal court.  Domestic violence cases are heard in this courtroom on Tuesdays and Thursdays.