Marshals primarily enforce orders from civil court cases, including collecting on judgments, seizing property, and carrying out evictions.
By 1968, the New York City Civil Court Act's Article 16 made city marshals officers of the Civil Court of New York City, which allowed Appellate Divisions for the First and Second Judicial Departments of the court to supervise the marshals.
New York City Marshals provide civil law enforcement duties by collecting court ordered fees, fees which are set by statute, from the private litigants whose judgments they enforce, and they also retain five percent of any money they collect on judgments.
City marshals may, depending on the court order brought to them by the winning litigant, seize money, movable property (for instance, inventory from a business), vehicles (as is the case with unpaid parking tickets) and return possession of rental premises to the landlord (also known as eviction).
Marshals collectively perform approximately 25,000 evictions per year.