Yes, You Do Need a Desk Appearance Ticket Attorney

I KNOW WHAT THEY TOLD YOU

I know the police officer probably told you not to worry about getting an appearance ticket lawyer. I know this from vast experience talking to hundreds and hundreds of people over the years who have been told exactly this by the police officers who arrest them. It is part of an utterly incomprehensible misinformation campaign that has been waged for years by the NYPD for no reason I can fathom. I can also tell you that, having represented several police officers and their children over the years, they are quite quick about getting legal advice when they get arrested.

But you want it to be true that you don’t need legal advice because you don't want to believe that an appearance ticket case is all that serious. If you are here reading this page, however, you may be concerned that it might not be quite as simple as how the police officer made it sound. You're right, especially under the new Appearance Ticket reforms.

HERE'S THE PROBLEM

You have been charged with a crime, quite possibly even a felony crime, now that appearance tickets are mandatory for most E felonies. You are being ordered to appear in Criminal Court to answer those criminal charges. If this isn't enough to get your attention, remember that we live in a world where even being accused of a crime can create problems for people outside the world of Criminal Court in areas like immigration, employment, student loans, housing, and more.

HERE'S THE SOLUTION

The solution to this problem is to get legal advice.

TWO POSSIBLE SOURCES OF LEGAL ADVICE IN A CRIMINAL CASE

There are currently two basic sources for legal advice about your Appearance Ticket, and two courses of action based on those sources. If you meet poverty guidelines, you can apply for the assistance of one of the public defender type organizations, like The Legal Aid Society. If you don’t think you meet poverty guidelines, you must take the time that you have between arrest and your appearance date to obtain your own private lawyer.

If you believe that you will qualify for an assigned lawyer because you meet poverty guidelines, then you do nothing until your scheduled court appearance and you will meet with one of the assigned lawyers on your first appearance date where you will be screened for eligibility. (Note that it is possible that the public defenders, starting in January, 2020 may start to become willing to do “intake” screenings for eligibility prior to the scheduled date, at least for those who think they qualify and reach out to them, but until January, 2020, they generally will not conduct screenings for eligibility prior to the scheduled appearance in court.)

If you don’t believe that you will qualify for an assigned lawyer because you don’t think you will meet poverty guidelines that would make you eligible for a public defender, then you must make use of the time between your arrest and your first appearance to find and hire a lawyer to represent you.

You can show up without your own lawyer on your first appearance date, and go through the motions of being screened for eligibility, but you probably have a pretty good sense of whether you would qualify for a free lawyer or not, and you will have squandered valuable time in your case. If you own a home, and/or if you have a full time job, you are unlikely to qualify for a free lawyer. If you are currently receiving public assistance of some sort, then you are likely to qualify for a free lawyer.

DO YOU WANT PERSONALIZED SERVICE AND ADVICE RIGHT AWAY OR SOMETHING ELSE?

If you were to sit down and imagine exactly how you would want to to get advice about your criminal case, would you say, "I want to get the legal advice I need in a public hallway surrounded by others impatient to talk to the same lawyer and whoever else happens by. I also want this public meeting with my lawyer to be the only legal advice I get before shortly being required to stand up on the record in front of the Judge."?

I'm thinking that isn't what you would describe as your idea of how, in a perfect world, you want to get your legal advice about your criminal case. But in the current (pre-2020) system at least, if you wait until your court appearance, this is exactly how you will be getting legal advice about your case.

If you have your own lawyer from Shalley and Murray, you are a phone call or an appointment away from being able to have an in depth, private discussion for as long as you like, until every question you may have is answered to your satisfaction, long before you are minutes from being forced to stand up in Court before the Judge. We make ourselves available to our clients to help them understand the process and their circumstances. We make sure that our clients know how we are going to navigate them through their cases well in advance.

THE LAWYER YOU CHOOSE

In imagining the ideal situation for you, would you say, "I don't care at all who my lawyer is, how much experience my lawyer has, or whether I personally feel like my desk appearance ticket lawyer can provide advice I can rely on. What could possibly go wrong? All I care about is whether or not my lawyer got a passing grade on the bar exam, whether it was two months ago or 3o years ago."

In a perfect world, this would not be what you would say. But if you wait until your court appearance date to get your legal advice, you will get that legal advice from someone chosen for you at random. You will have no control over whether the person assigned to represent you has 30 years experience or six months experience.

In a perfect world, wouldn't you rather get your legal advice from a highly experienced criminal defense lawyer with decades of experience in Criminal Court who has handled countless cases just like yours?

At Shalley and Murray we have nearly 30 years experience handling nothing but criminal defense cases. More than likely we have handled many cases just like yours.

PREDICTABLE EXPERIENCE

In a perfect world, would you say, "I want to have to take the whole day off of work or school because I have no idea whether I am going to be seen first or last, and I don't mind having to wait around all day if necessary."?

In a perfect world, you would prefer to be able to confidently predict being done in court with your desk appearance ticket case by 10am. This is exactly what you get when you have an attorney from Shalley and Murray with you.

Do not fall into the trap of thinking that the time printed on your DAT form is some sort of specific appointment for you. Your case will be called at such time as your lawyer (private or public defender) prepares and files a notice of appearance with the Court. If you are expecting the public defenders to handle your case, you need to understand that someone will be first and someone will be last and that the public defenders will handle more than 100 cases in a day. There is no way to predict when you will be called. Be prepared to wait for the public defenders.

Our lawyer will already know enough about your case to file a notice of appearance as soon as the two of you enter the courtroom. Since the public defenders will likely be still in the process of interviewing and preparing their cases, this means that we can often have your case called nearly immediately.

LEGAL REPRESENTATION IS AFFORDABLE

Having handled countless cases just like yours over the last 29 years, our Desk Appearance Ticket lawyers have the knowledge, experience, and judgment to provide the guidance you need to protect all of your interests efficiently, and therefore affordably. In most cases, we can handle your Desk Appearance Ticket case with a simple fixed fee that is likely to be far more manageable for you than what you might have expected.

CALL A DESK APPEARANCE TICKET LAWYER NOW

James Shalley has been practicing criminal defense in New York for more than 30 years.