April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. April marks Distracted Driving Awareness Month across the U.S. And in New York, law enforcement ran a targeted initiative over the past week. Indeed, the state pr...
How to Expunge a Prior Marijuana Conviction in New York
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. In 2021, New York didn’t just decriminalize marijuana – the state legislature made it legal for recreational use. Under these new laws, convictions for such can, in some ca...
How Desk Appearance Tickets Really Work in New York
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Sometimes, when you’re alleged to have committed a crime, you’re not always taken into custody. In these cases, cops don’t use handcuffs and jail cells – they issue a Desk...
“Clean Slate” Would Automatically Clear Criminal Records in New York
PLEASE NOTE: Our office has received a number of calls regarding the Clean Slate Act. This blog is about a proposed law that was not yet in force. The Clean Slate Act has now been signed into law, and...
Exposure, Lewdness, and Other Offenses Against Public Sensibilities
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. There are some actions which are considered so offensive that they are criminalized. In New York, this includes exposure of intimate parts and other types of lewdness. They...
The Rise of Electronic Monitoring and its Costs to Criminal Defendants
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. During the covid-19 pandemic, there was an increase in the use of electronic monitoring. Yet such monitoring has been available for some time. The use of ankle bracelets in...
The Hidden Costs of the NY Criminal Legal System
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. The old saying goes, “Crime doesn’t pay.” And in New York, getting involved in the criminal legal system can actually cost a lot of money. From supervision fees, to restitu...
Facial Recognition and Its Use by Law Enforcement
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. Facial recognition is a way of identifying someone using a picture of their face. Then it is compared to pictures in a database. For example, if you have an iPhone, you may...
Decriminalizing Sex Work: Will Prostitution Become Legal?
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. It is often referred to as the “oldest profession.” Yet prostitution and patronizing a sex worker are crimes that, in some circumstances, carry heavy criminal penalties. Re...
RAI for Sex Offense Registration May Change With New Bill
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. In New York, persons convicted of certain sexual offenses are required to register under the Sex Offender Registration Act (“SORA”). They are assigned a risk level, mostly...
Repeal of Section 50-a: Disclosure of Police Disciplinary Records
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. On Friday, June 12, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation repealing a law which prevented the disclosure of law enforcement disciplinary records to the public....
Rollback of Bail Reform in New York for Certain Offenses
By Jill K. Sanders, Esq. On April 2, 2020, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the state's 2021 budget. Part of the budget is new legislation dealing with bail reforms which went into effec...