Legal Information Center

First-time offenders arrested for shoplifting at large department stores in New York (such as Sak’s Fifth Avenue, Century 21, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, or Uniqlo) typically receive Desk Appearance Tickets, or DATS, from the police. (For more on shoplifting and petit larceny arrests, click here and here.). However, many shoplifting defendants also soon receive letters from lawyers…

Many of our clients come to us after being issued Desk Appearance Tickets (“DAT”‘s) charging them with cocaine or other drug possession (the charge is usually “Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh Degree” in violation of Penal Law section 220.03). Most of these clients have just experienced their first arrest and are…

If you’ve been told to appear in court for a summons, Desk Appearance Ticket (“DAT”), or other criminal case, you can face serious consequences should you fail to appear on your scheduled court date. We advise that you retain an experienced criminal defense attorney immediately to help you repair the damage that has already been…

Recently, a video of a fight between a bus driver and a passenger in Cleveland has gone viral and sparked a great deal of debate. To summarize, a passenger on a Cleveland bus captured cell phone footage of a male municipal bus driver in a profane argument with a female passenger that had refused to…

The authors of this blog represent an individual that recently had a significant charge dismissed against her by the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest state appeals court. The case involved a very interesting and complicated question concerning the proper scope of prosecutions pursuant to the Organized Crime Control Act, pursuant to NY Penal Law…

Criminal Contempt charges are very serious and can be quite difficult to defend against in some circumstances. The overwhelming majority of the Criminal Contempt cases pursued by prosecutors involve violations of orders of protection, and usually are classified as “domestic violence,” meaning that the complainant and defendant are or were in some sort of romantic…

If your friend or loved one has just been arrested for a state-level crime in Manhattan, you are unlikely to be able to see him again before his arraignment at 100 Centre Street. Typically, a person arrested for a crime spends a few hours (though this number can vary wildly) at a police precinct while…

MG successfully represented a woman on appeal to the Court of Appeals, the highest state court in New York. As a result of their efforts, the most serious charges against her were dismissed in a case that may have serious precedential significance with respect to organized crime prosecutions in New York. Reuters did a story…

Today, the Court of Appeals (New York’s highest state court) announced that it was reversing a decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, in the case of the People v. Western Express, et al. As a result, the most serious charge against our client – Enterprise Corruption – was dismissed by a 6-1 vote. The…

The New York Post is reporting that actress Lindsay Lohan was arrested early this morning at the Dream Downtown Hotel in the confines of the 10th Precinct. According to the story, Ms. Lohan was issued a desk appearance ticket for Leaving the Scene of an Accident Without Reporting, a violation of New York’s Vehicle and…