Saratoga County Court, Ballston Spa

Saratoga County Court Information

Court details are provided as a public reference and were verified against the New York State Unified Court System at the time of publication. Judges, hours, and contact information can change; confirm current details with the court before relying on them.

What Saratoga County Court Handles

The Unified Court System lists the court as Saratoga County Supreme and County Court, and the division of labor is simple: Supreme Court hears civil matters and County Court hears criminal ones. County Court has exclusive authority to conduct felony trials, shares misdemeanor authority with the local courts, and hears appeals from the town, village, and city courts of the county. Hon. James R. Davis is the County Court judge, sworn in January 2025, and he also presides over the county’s felony drug treatment court. The Supreme Court justices sitting in the same building handle the civil calendar.

The cases that arrive here are the county’s felonies: felony DWI and vehicular assault from the Northway and Route 9 corridors, drug sale and possession felonies, grand larceny and embezzlement from the county’s small employers, burglary, felony assault, and the felony-level domestic violence cases that the Integrated Domestic Violence Part consolidates.

How a Felony Gets From a Town Court to Ballston Spa

A felony complaint is arraigned in the local criminal court where the arrest happened: Saratoga Springs City Court, Mechanicville City Court, or one of the town and village courts. Off-hours arraignments in the county run through a centralized arraignment part rather than by calling out an individual town justice; confirm the current location and hours with the court or the Sheriff’s Office. At arraignment the judge sets release conditions and, in a domestic case, an order of protection. The local court does not decide a felony. It either holds the case for a felony hearing or, far more often, the District Attorney presents it to a grand jury. If you are in custody, CPL 180.80 requires your release when the grand jury has not acted within the statutory deadline.

The Saratoga County grand jury is sworn by the County Court judge and sits in the grand jury chamber inside the District Attorney’s office in Building 4 of the Municipal Center. Its schedule is not public. An indictment moves the case to County Court for a second arraignment, followed by discovery, motions, and either a negotiated plea or a trial. Many felonies never reach indictment: a case resolved as a misdemeanor in the local court before the grand jury acts stays in the local court, which is one reason the first weeks after a felony arrest matter so much. Our guide to what happens after an arrest walks through each stage.

The Drug Treatment Court and the Domestic Violence Part

Two specialty parts sit at 30 McMaster Street. The Saratoga County Superior Court for Drug Treatment, Judge Davis presiding, (518) 451-8762, is the county’s felony-level treatment court: an eligible defendant whose charge is driven by addiction can enter supervised treatment under a plea agreement that ends in a reduced charge or dismissal on completion, and in a sentence on failure. It is the local channel for what the Criminal Procedure Law calls judicial diversion, and it changes the calculus in many possession and property cases.

The Integrated Domestic Violence Part, Hon. Heather N. Brondi presiding, (518) 451-8780, brings a family’s criminal, family court, and matrimonial matters before a single judge. A domestic violence felony with a custody case attached is likely to land here, and the coordination between the criminal case and the family matter is a defense issue from day one. Saratoga County does not appear on the state’s listings of veterans treatment courts or mental health courts.

The District Attorney, the Jail, and the Building

Cases are prosecuted by the Saratoga County District Attorney’s Office, 25 West High Street, Ballston Spa, (518) 885-2263. District Attorney Brett Eby was elected in November 2025 and took office in January 2026; the office runs a narcotics and special investigations bureau, a special victims unit, and an appeals bureau. Defendants held before trial are at the Saratoga County Correctional Facility, 6010 County Farm Road in Ballston Spa, (518) 885-2480, a 255-bed facility run by the Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Jeffrey R. Brown, who also took office in January 2026. Bail is paid through the Sheriff’s Office, and visitation runs on scheduled weekday blocks by housing unit.

The courthouse has public parking on site and adjacent to the building, a ground-level main entrance, elevators to every public floor, and security screening at the door; court security is (518) 451-8803. E-filing is mandatory for designated case types. The Commissioner of Jurors, Susan Gavin Lant, is in the same building at (518) 451-8850.

The Local Courts That Feed Saratoga County Court

Saratoga County has two cities, nineteen towns, and nine villages, and every town has a town court. Felonies come here from Saratoga Springs City Court and Mechanicville City Court, and from the town courts of Clifton Park, Halfmoon, Malta, Wilton, Milton, Ballston, Moreau, Greenfield, Corinth, Galway, and the rest of the county. See the Saratoga County page, the full courts directory, or our felony defense page, or call 518-245-9109 for a free consultation.