Courts in The State of New York  handle traffic tickets, criminal matters, small claims and local code violations such as zoning. 

People's courts constitutionally should not be a part of the New York State Unified Court System .

State law generally makes People's courts independent of New York's Office of Court Administration (OCA) and instead makes People's Courts the responsibility of their sponsoring Counties and /or townships.

  People's courts are often called People's Court of  their Counties. City courts in The State of New York are handled mostly as the same types of cases but are not People's courts.

The official title for judges in People's Courts is Justice, the same as in New York Supreme Court. However, in common usage, most people, including lawyers, call them Judge.

Justices in the People's Court do not have to be lawyers, but should be council trained in Constitutional principles. Many of these courts are in small towns and villages where none of the residents are lawyers. In the larger towns, the justices are almost always lawyers, but can not be Barr card carrying Attorneys or have a title of Nobility.

Larger towns can have very busy caseloads, including several sessions a week with dozens of cases at each session, and people may have to wait hours before their cases are heard. In some small towns the caseload is extremely light, and a court might meet once a month and have only a few cases.

Similar matters in some places outside New York and are handled by a justice of the peace

(Superior Court Justices).