Losing parties in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, the state's intermediate appellate court, may seek to appeal to the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. Appeals to the Court of Appeals usually require a court's permission, though a party may appeal as of right to the Court of Appeals in limited circumstances. In rare instances, a party may even seek to appeal directly from a trial court to the Court of Appeals.

There are some significant procedural differences between taking an appeal to the Court of Appeals and taking an appeal to the appellate division. For example, there are unique rules about where to move for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeals, and unique forms that parties must submit after taking an appeal. The process for submitting a reproduced full record or an appendix to the Court of Appeals also differs somewhat from the process in the appellate division.

As in the appellate division, the focus of the appellate process is the submission of written briefs with arguments for reversing, vacating, modifying, or affirming the ruling below. Here, too, however, practice differs from the appellate division. For example, the Court of Appeals has an expedited review process for some cases that uses only letter briefs and does not permit oral argument. Even where the parties submit full briefs and orally argue, the Court of Appeals has its own requirements for contents, formatting, service, filing, and submission of electronic copies of documents.

This Toolkit includes resources explaining the appellate process in the Court of Appeals, including taking (that is, starting) the appeal, submitting the necessary factual materials, briefing the appeal, arguing the appeal, and, if necessary, making motions.