Welcome to the Law Office of Michael Fineman. If you or a loved one has been arrested and charged with a crime, the right Criminal Defense Lawyer can make all the difference. The right lawyer can mean the difference between freedom and prison. The right lawyer can mean the difference between a second chance in life or a permanent mark against you.

The Law Office of Michael Fineman, Esq., exclusively handles Criminal Defense cases in all the boroughs of New York City. Mr. Fineman represents clients in both New York State and Federal District Courts.  For more information about our practice, please click on links above.

Please call us right away to make an appointment for a free consultation. Once you meet with Mr. Fineman and discuss his background and how he can make a difference in your case, you'll understand why he is the right Criminal Defense Attorney for you.  

For more information about the criminal process, please read below.

1: How does a criminal case start?

All criminal cases are commenced with the filing of an accusatory instrument. What that means in layman's terms, is that a criminal case - just like any other law suit - starts when the person bringing the action files a document with the court that will be dealing with the case.

The vast majority of criminal cases in New York State are commenced after a person has been arrested. In rare circumstances, a criminal case can be commenced with the filing of an accusatory instrument called an indictment prior to the arrest, however, this is not the norm in the State Courts of New York. Conversely, in Federal Court, the government usually files a sealed indictment or a magistrate's complaint prior to arrest.

2: So what happens when a person is arrested, but has not yet seen the judge?

Well ordinarily, when the police responds to the scene of a crime and encounter an individual that they believe committed a crime based on the information that they have at the time, they place that person under arrest. In the alternative, sometimes the police respond to a call and are given information that leads them to believe that a crime has been committed, but the accused is not present. In this circumstance, the responding officers generate a complaint and forward the papers to the detective squad for further investigation. Once a detective is involved, if he or she knows the identity of the person they want to arrest, they will either go out and try to apprehend that person, or they attempt to make contact with the person in order to arrange a surrender.

Practical Tip: If a detective has left his or her card for you at your home, and you have any reason to believe that you may have been accused of a crime, you should contact an attorney immediately. If you call the detective and the detective tells you that they want you to come to the precinct to answer a few questions, that usually means that they are trying to lure you into the precinct for an arrest. Alternatively, they may believe that you committed a crime and want to question you so that they can fill in the gaps in their case and then arrest you. Either way, you should really contact an attorney right away. If it is a pure surrender situation, you will want your lawyer to arrange a surrender so that you spend as little time as possible in custody before seeing the judge, and you want to prevent the police from asking you any questions that can make their case stronger against you. On the other hand, if all they want to do is ask questions, your lawyer will become an obstacle between you and the government. 

Practical Tip: If a federal agent wants to ask you a few questions, the stakes are much higher than when local law enforcement wants to ask you questions. If a federal agent misinterprets what you say and believes that you lied to him or her, they can arrest your for Obstruction of Justice, a felony under federal law, even if you did nothing wrong in relation to the situation that they wanted to talk to you about. (see Martha Stewart). 

3: Okay, so now I have been arrested, what happens now?

Once a person has been arrested, the arresting police officer must draft all the police paperwork in your case. This paperwork often takes a number of hours to complete, and once it is done, it is forwarded to the District Attorney's Office for review.

Most people think that the police charge people with crimes. That is not exactly true in New York. While the police do make a decision as to the arrest charges on their paperwork, the final say so as to the charges that will be made against you, if any, is up to the District Attorney of the county where you were arrested.

You may notice that I wrote "if any" above. Just because the police arrest someone, doesn't mean the District Attorney must prosecute the case. There are many occasions that the District Attorney reviews the allegations against you and make a determination to decline to prosecute you. There are numerous reasons that may happen, but frequently, it means that in the prosecutor's legal opinion, there is no crime that can be legally charged against you. 

In the event that the District Attorney decides to levy charges against someone, they may not be the same charges that the police choose for their paperwork. Often, the police will charge someone with a felony where the facts can be made to fit that type of accusation, but the District Attorney will decide based on to many reasons to list here that the case would be better handled as a misdemeanor. On the other hand, sometimes police officers are told by their supervisors to under charge an arrest to protect their statistics and so they can say that the crime rate is lower than it actually is. The District Attorney can then decide that the accusations are more serious than the police charges and elevate the case to a felony. 

Practical Tip: When a person is arrested, it is impossible to know what the charges will be until the District Attorney makes the final charging decision in the accusatory instrument that is filed with the Court. If someone close to has been arrested, and the police tell you the charges, take that information with a grain of salt, because until your lawyer finds out the charges from the prosecutor, things can change.

4: What happens after the District Attorney finishes their paperwork?

Once the District Attorney has finish generating their paperwork, which includes the accusatory instrument filed with the Court, the paperwork is sent to the Court. By this point, the person who has been arrested is in Central Booking and has been in custody for nearly 24 hours. The Criminal Court then dockets the case, and sends the papers to the courtroom for the arraignment.

Practical Tip: As a general rule of thumb, from the time of arrest to arraignment, a person usually spends anywhere from 18 to 24 hours in custody. There are occasions where there is a problem and a person can be held for longer than 24 hours, and sometimes, a lawyer can help to make the process move more quickly.

5: Where do I go if someone I know has been arrested?

New York County Criminal Court (Manhattan)

Public Transportation:

Kings County Criminal Court (Brooklyn)

Bronx County Criminal Court

Queens County

Richmond County Criminal Court (Staten Island)