Whether advocating for a complainant in a criminal prosecution or a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, Child Victims Act attorneys know that sex abuse cases involving children are some of the most disturbing and difficult legal matters they can handle even if the victim of these acts are now adults.…
New York Criminal Lawyer Blog
New York Bail Reform 2020: Qualified Offenses, Bench Warrants and Bail Revocation Hearings
Commencing at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2020, New York Bail Reform, as it is commonly referred, takes discretion and authority from both judges and prosecutors and shifts power to far more strict and specifically outlined statutory guidelines. Codified throughout New York Criminal Procedure Law 500, a judge’s…
Understanding “Raise the Age”: New York State Juvenile Crimes and Prosection
A long time coming in the minds and hearts of many a child advocate, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the “Raise the Age” legislation into law this past April. As a result, juveniles, kids, youth, children, or simply boys and girls aged 16 and 17 will, depending on the…
NY CPL Article 722: Raise the Age, Adolescent Offender & Extraordinary Circumstances
Raise the Age legislation, codified in part in CPL Article 722, has brought New York more in line with the majority of the nation in dealing with criminal charges and accusations against certain teenagers. The legislation was also largely a compromise between law enforcement and the proponents of these kinds…
Understanding New York’s Two-Hour Rule in a DWI Arrest and Refusal to Submit to a Breath Test
DWI, DUI and DWAI arrests routinely involve complicated issues beyond those that most non-attorneys contemplate. Yes, criminal lawyers will question the reason the NYPD or NY State Police stopped their client’s vehicle. Yes, legal counsel will attack the veracity of an officer’s claims as to how their client allegedly failed…
When Possessing a Knife isn’t a Crime: Fourth Degree Criminal Possession of a Weapon and Utilitarian Objects with Non-Criminal Uses
If George Orwell’s satirical theory of equality in “Animal Farm” applied to the New York Penal Law, then all knives would be created equal even if certain knives were more equal than others. Fortunately, as any criminal lawyer knows, the Penal Law does not allow for such untenable situations where…
Understanding Your Right To Counsel: Does a Demand for an Attorney to One Law Enforcement Agency Follow You to Another Agency
As a defendant already under arrest or as an accused or target confronted by law enforcement during an investigation, one of the most important rights you can ever exercise is your right to remain silent. Whether you are legally in custody or you are lawfully being interrogated by a police…
Understanding Menacing Crimes: When “Unrelated” Threats and Actions Violate the Law
While the law is clear and known to criminal lawyers practicing throughout the New York City region, when one thinks of menacing behavior one often thinks of threats with words, body, weapons or some combination of the three. Despite what those outside the legal profession may think, the Penal Law…
N.Y.C. Admin. Code §10-180(b)(1): “Covered Recipients” and the Secondary Forwarding of Viral Revenge Porn
Similar to Penal Law 245.15, NYC Administrative Code 10-180(b)(1) is the crime of Revenge Porn within the confines of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. Both of these offenses, Unlawful Dissemination or Publication of an Intimate Image and Unlawful Disclosure of and Intimate Image, are misdemeanor statutes and provide…
Why I am Proud to be a Defense Attorney: A Review from an Innocent and Falsely Accused Former Client
As a both a New York criminal lawyer representing the accused and serving as an advocate for complainants as well as a Title IX attorney representing alleged perpetrators and victims of Dating Violence and Gender Based Discrimination on college and university campuses, it is sometimes a heavy lift and difficult…