NYPD Desk Appearance Ticket Misinformation Policy

By New York Criminal Lawyer Don Murray

We hear from people who have been given DATs in New York City virtually every day. One of the most common topics of conversation is the legal advice provided by the police who arrested them.

Almost as if it were a policy of the NYPD, people who are given DATs are almost always advised, among other things, that "you don't need a lawyer" because the case will probably "just be dismissed".

This sort of legal advice from the NYPD borders on the unauthorized practice of law itself or at least suggests an appalling lack of understanding of the criminal justice system from those who are supposed to be a part of it.

This legal advice from the NYPD to those they arrest often fails to consider possible important collateral consequences to certain types of seemingly good resolutions (like job and immigration implications) and often fails to consider other potential legal complications of the criminal case itself.

Here is a handy rule of thumb when dealing with the police officer who is arresting you, putting you in handcuffs, and charging you with a crime: THE POLICE OFFICER IS NOT YOUR LAWYER AND YOU SHOULD NOT ACCEPT LEGAL ADVICE FROM THE PERSON WHO IS ARRESTING YOU.

The question is not whether or not you need a lawyer. That question has been answered by the 6th Amendment to the United States Constitution. If you are charged with a crime, you MUST have a lawyer. The default position of the United States Constitution is that a person charged with a crime must have a lawyer. Period. Many people have died in foreign lands fighting to allow us to continue to enjoy many important rights, like the right to be represented by a lawyer when the Government charges us with a crime.

Therefore, the real issue is whether the Government will be required to provide a lawyer for you, or whether you will be required to hire your own lawyer.

A landmark United States Supreme Court case called Gideon v. Wainwright, established the principle that the Government must provide a lawyer for someone it accuses of a crime IF THE PERSON IS INDIGENT.

In New York City, the organization that handles most of these indigent cases is The Legal Aid Society. The Legal Aid Society gets funding from the Government to represent INDIGENT PEOPLE. The Legal Aid Society is NOT in the business of representing people who are NOT INDIGENT (who do not meet federal poverty guidelines).

Therefore, if you take the police officer's advice and show up to DATs on the first date expecting that The Legal Aid Society will just agree to represent you because "it is only a DAT" you will be mistaken.

The Legal Aid Society lawyers are obligated to screen every person for eligibility before agreeing to represent anyone. You will be interviewed about your financial situation and in some close cases, you may be asked to provide records, such as tax records or pay stubs.

If the Legal Aid Society lawyer determines that you do not meet Federal Poverty Guidelines, then the Legal Aid Society will decline to represent you and will alert the judge that you should be required to retain your own lawyer.

The Legal Aid Society lawyers are an extremely dedicated, idealistic group of lawyers whose job is to represent the indigent in accord with the great case of Gideon v. Wainwright. Speaking from the experience of having been a trial lawyer for The Legal Aid Society, I can tell you that they have plenty of work to do keeping up with cases of indigent folks accused of crimes, and are therefore quite vigilant about eligibility issues.

Despite what the police officer is telling you, it would be absolutely absurd to imagine that a lawyer who has dedicated his career to representing the poor, whose funding is based on representing the poor, who is going to be quite busy with plenty of cases representing the poor, is simply going to take on (just for the fun of it) the representation of people who do not meet their eligibility criteria.

In addition, Judges are quite sensitive to the issue of eligibility for the services of Government paid lawyers. Just as it is not in the interest of the Legal Aid Society lawyers to take on extra work representing people who do not meet their eligibility guidelines, Judges are ever vigilant to make sure that Government money meant for the legal services to be provided to the poor is not spent on providing legal services to people who don't meet federal poverty guidelines.

This is especially true in these times when everyone is sensitive to wasteful government spending. How could the Government possibly justify spending money on providing criminal defense legal services to people who do not qualify under current Government standards for those services?

And so Judges make sure that each case that the Legal Aid Society seeks to represent is one where the services are justified. In some cases, Judges may even make their own inquiry about eligibility in addition to the screening conducted by the Legal Aid Society lawyer.

Therefore, do not necessarily accept the legal advice of the police officer who arrested you for a Desk Appearance Ticket. But unless you think you will meet Federal Poverty guidelines, it will make sense for you to begin planning on seeking legal services from a lawyer before your first appearance.

There are many wonderful lawyers in New York City who can help with a Desk Appearance Ticket. You can take advantage of the time you have before your appearance to seek out the assistance of the lawyer who you most feel comfortable with handling your case.

If you have been given a desk appearance ticket in New York, you can find a great deal of information right here. Whether you want to know about the procedures, about the sorts of offenses that might be charged, the sorts of outcomes possible, or even whether you ought to hire a lawyer, you will find help in this site.

Desk Appearance Ticket (DAT) Information

Read about general desk appearance ticket procedures or click on your specific county in New York City below to check for local procedures.

Online Desk Appearance Ticket Information

If you have received a desk appearance ticket in New York, or if you have been told that you might receive a desk appearance ticket, you probably have questions about what is going to happen to you and what it all means.

Desk-Appearance-Ticket.com should go a long way toward answering most of your questions in a straightforward, easy to understand format. Desk appearance tickets are different from pink summonses. If you are looking for help with a pink summons issued in New York City, visit our pinks summons information site.

If you are looking for information about petit larceny charges in New York City and help with defending petit larcency accusations, visit our petit larceny information website.

If you received a desk appearance ticket on case that has been labeled domestic violence, you may also be interested in having a look at our website all about domestic violence prosecutions in New York City as well as this site.

All the articles in this site have been written by Don Murray, Esq., a criminal defense lawyer with more than 20 years experience handling criminal cases in New York City, Westchester, and Nassau County. Mr. Murray is a partner in the criminal defense law firm Shalley Murray, with offices located in New York City and Westchester.

If you have additional questions that are unanswered here, or if you want more information, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Murray directly at 718-268-2171.

Read Articles Answering the Following Desk Appearance Ticket Questions:

Airport Desk Appearance Ticket Alert

With two major airports in Queens County (JFK airport and Laguardia airport), and given the heightened security at those airports, there has been a surge in "weapons" related desk appearance tickets.

Travelers appearing at New York Airports who are found to have "weapons" such as small knives, batons, and other similar various objects they may well have forgotten were among their luggage, can often find themselves on the receiving end of a Desk Appearance Ticket and a whole lot more grief than they would imagine was justified.

"Caught" with a blade at the bottom of your purse that someone put there five years ago? Most people under such circumstances would completely understand if the blade or other object were simply confiscated and destroyed. Most people would not usually expect to be prosecuted criminally, however.

But those who are lucky enough not to be put through the system for such offenses will almost certainly be given a desk appearance ticket for misdemeanor possession of a weapon charges. These are criminal charges for which a criminal conviction could result and up to one year in jail imposed as a possible, although unlikely, sentence.

Aside from being required to return to New York on the court date, the Desk Appearance Ticket may not be the end of your troubles. The Federal Government (Department of Homeland Security) has a separate penalty in store for you as well - a fine that can be hundreds, even thousands of dollars.

In the wake of the 9-11-01 tragedy, the Queens District Attorney's Office takes any criminal accusation arising at an airport highly seriously. That goes double for any accusation involving a weapon, even a weapon you might consider trivial. You would be well advised to take such a desk appearance ticket highly seriously yourself.

I Need to Change the DAT Appearance Date

Alas, another issue that frequently arises regarding information provided by the NYPD arresting officer in a Desk Appearance Ticket concerns cases where the DAT appearance date is inconvenient for the recipient for one reason or another. Almost inevitably, the DAT recipient will be told that all they have to do is "go to Court" as soon as possible and "get a new date".

This is absurd. That just isn't how it works. I can't even guess how many stressed out people have contacted me after spending a frustrating day dealing with the court clerks who "for some reason" are acting like they can't give out a new date on the DAT.

The Court can't give out a new date because the Court has no knowledge of the DAT case, often until perhaps the day before or day of the first appearance. Therefore, there IS NO CASE TO ADVANCE as far as the Court is concerned.

In some, but not all cases, it is possible for an attorney to arrange with the District Attorney's Office to deal with a Desk Appearance Ticket in advance of the DAT scheduled. This will depend on the District Attorney's Office believing that the reason is good enough as well as the ability of the District Attorney's office to do what needs to be done to create a court ready file by the date required. Advancing a case for the District Attorney's Office involves a certain amount of bureaucratic trouble that they are not obligated to undertake.

Examples of situations in which we have obtained advance dates on Desk Appearance Ticket cases include people who are going into the military or occasionally students who are going a great distance off to college. Run of the mill inconvenience is not often perceived by the District Attorney's Office as a legitimate reason to try to advance a Desk Appearance Ticket.

In order to adjust the date of a Desk Appearance Ticket, you need to deal with the District Attorney's Office. If you are charged with a crime by the District Attorney's Office, they are really in sort of a tricky spot in having dealings with you in the first place.

The reality is that if you need a different date for your DAT appearance, the most likely path to achieve this goal will be if you have your own lawyer. If you are entertaining thoughts of taking the police officer's other advice "to go with Legal Aid" and "not bother hiring a lawyer" then you will likely be out of luck. You are welcome of course to contact The Legal Aid Society and ask them to help you try to advance a Desk Appearance Ticket if you think they will be happy to represent you. Otherwise, your greatest likelihood of advancing the case will be to bring in a private lawyer who can try to arrange it for you.

We Can Help with Desk Appearance Tickets

If you have any further questions, or would like to talk to us about helping you with your case, please do not hesitate to call us at 718-268-2171.

We are not the Court. We are a private New York criminal defense law firm with offices in New York City and Westchester County. We have more than 20 years experience defending people accused of crimes in New York, including people with Desk Appearance Tickets. Whether you simply have a question or two, or want to make an appointment for a free consultation to speak to a criminal defense lawyer, please do not hesitate to call. Call 718-268-2171 for more information about Desk Appearance Tickets in New York or to schedule your free consultation with a New York criminal defense lawyer from Shalley and Murray.

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Somers, NY 10589

If you are in need of a New York Criminal Appeals Lawyer, contact Law offices of Tom Theophilos at 866-447-7899.