The same idea under a different name
Most of the United States, including New York, does not use the term acquisitive prescription. Courts here speak of adverse possession when someone claims ownership of land through long occupation, and of a prescriptive easement when someone claims only a right to keep using it, such as a path or a shared driveway. Louisiana, with its civil-law tradition, does use the term, and so do many countries abroad, including Korea and much of Europe and Latin America. The underlying idea is similar, but the rules about how long, what kind of possession, and what proof is needed are set by each state. Translating a rule from one system to another is where people most often go wrong.
Why New York is narrower than people expect
New York changed its adverse possession rules by statute and has made these claims harder to bring than many owners assume. How the land was actually used matters a great deal, and so does whether permission was ever given, since permission tends to defeat the claim. Some small encroachments and routine upkeep of a neighbor's strip are treated differently from real occupation. Claims against land owned by public bodies raise separate problems. A claim of this kind also does not change the record by itself; it usually has to be established through a court action or settled in a written agreement that is then recorded.
Records and first steps
Start with the deed, a current survey, and any older surveys or title reports, along with tax bills showing who has paid on the land in question. Photographs from different years, receipts for fences or paving, and the names of neighbors who remember how the land was used can matter on either side. If the property is abroad, the local rules and a local lawyer govern, though we can help coordinate if a US transaction or estate is involved. Our first step with you is to work out whether you are asserting a claim or answering one, what the documents show, and whether a boundary agreement or easement might settle things more cheaply than litigation.
