James Shalley has decades of experience handling Desk Appearance Tickets in New York City, Westchester, Nassau, and Putnam Counties.
Manhattan Appearance Tickets
Manhattan DATs are heard in two courthouses
MANHATTAN (NEW YORK) DESK APPEARANCE TICKET PROCEDURES
Note - Procedures for handling what is expected to be a great increase in the number of Desk Appearance Tickets in Manhattan once the new law takes effect in January, 2020, have yet to be announced officially. It could well be, however, that Desk Appearance Tickets will be simply heard in the regular arraignment courtroom on a daily basis, to be mixed into the regular arraignment process. Another possibility is that Desk Appearance Tickets will be given their own separate arraignment courtroom that will operate every day, or at least several days each week, perhaps only in the mornings.
In Manhattan there are two possible courthouses where you might be assigned with a Desk Appearance Ticket. You might be told to appear at the traditional criminal courthouse at 100 Centre Street, or you might be told to appear at the Midtown Community Court located at 314 West 54th Street. One is not necessarily worse than the other, and do not draw any conclusions from where you are told to appear.
When you appear in Manhattan for your Desk Appearance Ticket, one of the first things that will be accomplished is to establish whether or not your court papers are ready. Despite what is often a fairly lengthy lag time between arrest and DAT appearance date, it happens that the necessary documentation is not ready by the appointed date. If the paperwork is not ready, do not be alarmed. It does not mean your case has been singled out for especially harsh treatment. In most cases, the reason for the lack of readiness is purely bureaucratic.
In some cases, the District Attorney’s Office takes a second look at Desk Appearance Ticket cases and may choose not to proceed at all. In such cases, you will be given a piece of paper roughly explaining this and giving you a telephone number to call in the event that you do not hear from anyone within the appointed time.
Sometimes, the District Attorney’s Office simply chooses not to proceed, but not always. Do not assume that your case is going to be dismissed simply because the papers were not ready the first time in court.
If you are told that the papers are not ready, you will be asked to sign in to verify that you actually appeared when you were told to appear. Then you will be free to go and wait to see if you are given a new date to appear in court.
James Shalley has been practicing criminal defense in New York for more than 30 years.