Arrested in New York City. Here is what happens next.
NYC criminal defense lawyers for every borough and every charge - from a desk appearance ticket to a violent-felony indictment. The city arraigns people around the clock, the law says it should happen within 24 hours of arrest, and the decisions made before that first appearance shape everything after it. This page walks through the whole process - and the firm that argued the city's most-watched criminal trial walks it with you.
The first 24 hours, hour by hour.
Every New York charge sits on this ladder.
The ladder is why early counsel matters: most NYC cases are charged at the top of the available range and resolved lower. Where a case lands - felony to misdemeanor, misdemeanor to violation, violation to dismissal - is a function of the evidence, the borough, the prosecutor, and how early the defense started building. Predicate felony rules can double the floor for a second felony within ten years, which makes the first case the most important one to win.
The pink ticket is still a criminal case.
Since the 2020 reforms, police must issue a desk appearance ticket instead of holding most people charged with misdemeanors and class E felonies. You are printed, photographed, and released the same day with a slip of paper and a court date. The mistake people make is reading the release as leniency. The DAT is an accusatory instrument - the arraignment it schedules is a real arraignment, the charge on it is a real charge, and the conviction it can produce is a real conviction.
A DAT arraignment where counsel has already spoken to the assigned assistant, gathered the client's employment and community record, and framed the case is a different event from one where a stranger meets the file at the podium. Many DAT cases resolve at the first appearance - the question is on whose terms.
SEND US THE TICKET →The whole case, arraignment to verdict.
Every case in the city - felony or misdemeanor, arrest or DAT - starts in the borough's Criminal Court. Charges are read, release conditions or bail are set, orders of protection issue in domestic cases, and the speedy-trial clock starts. Nothing said at the podium is evidence, but everything decided there shapes the months ahead.
A felony cannot go to trial without an indictment by 23 grand jurors, or a waiver. The defense controls one lever: CPL 190.50 notice - the right to have the client testify before the grand jury. Sometimes that testimony kills a case before it starts; sometimes it hands the DA a sworn statement to use forever. It is the first genuinely strategic decision in a felony, and it comes early, under time pressure, with incomplete information. Experienced counsel earns the fee here.
Indicted felonies move to the Supreme Court's criminal term. The prosecution must turn over its file - police reports, body-camera footage, 911 audio, witness names, lab work, disciplinary records of testifying officers - and certify compliance before it can be ready for trial. Under the amendments effective August 2025, the defense has 35 days to challenge that certificate, which means the defense reads everything, fast.
The omnibus motion attacks the indictment, the stop, the search, the statement, and the identification. What survives goes to hearings. Far more New York cases are won by suppressing the gun, the statement, or the lineup than by closing arguments - because when the evidence goes, the case usually follows.
The prosecution must be ready for trial within six months on a felony, 90 days on a class A misdemeanor, 60 days on a class B misdemeanor - and readiness is not valid without discovery compliance. Chargeable time is counted day by day, adjournment by adjournment. When the People run out of clock, the case is dismissed. Tracking that math is unglamorous and it wins cases.
Well over ninety percent of NYC cases resolve without a verdict - by dismissal, ACD, a plea to a reduced charge, or a diversion program: mental-health courts, drug treatment courts, veterans tracks, judicial diversion under CPL 216. A good disposition is not surrender; it is the product of leverage built in stages one through five. And when the offer does not beat the trial risk, the case gets tried - by lawyers who actually try cases, which is what makes prosecutors move in the first place.
Sentencing in New York is argued, not announced - with a mitigation record the court has to engage. After that: notice of appeal within 30 days, and for older records, sealing under CPL 160.59 for up to two convictions after ten crime-free years. New York's Clean Slate Act now also seals eligible convictions automatically over time - but automatic is slow, and a motion is not.
Bail in New York, as it actually works.
For misdemeanors and most nonviolent felonies, the court cannot set money bail. The argument is about conditions - supervised release, travel limits, orders of protection - and a lawyer who knows the list keeps the conditions light.
Violent felonies, most sex offenses, witness intimidation, some domestic-violence and repeat-offense charges. The judge must consider ability to pay and set the least restrictive conditions that assure return - a standard that rewards a prepared, verified bail application.
Bail can be revisited - by application in the trial court or by habeas petition when it is set unreachably high. Partially secured bonds at a fraction of the face amount are on the statute's own menu, and judges use them when the defense asks correctly.
The DA has deadlines too.
New York's discovery law makes the prosecution open its file - and ties its trial readiness to doing so. The 2025 budget amendments softened the enforcement mechanism, but the architecture held: no valid certificate of compliance, no valid statement of readiness, and the speedy-trial clock keeps running against the People. Knowing exactly how this machinery works, as amended, is now a core defense skill.
Police paperwork, body-worn camera footage, 911 recordings, radio runs, lab reports and underlying data, witness names and statements, favorable evidence, and impeachment material on testifying officers - itemized by statute under CPL 245.20.
The People cannot validly answer ready for trial until they file a certificate of good-faith compliance. Courts now judge that certificate on the totality of the prosecution's diligence - case complexity, volume, what was missing and why - rather than item by item.
Since August 2025, a challenge to the certificate must be made by written motion within 35 days of its filing, absent a material change or newly discovered grounds. A defense team that reads the discovery late has waived the fight. This firm reads it the week it lands.
Felony, class A misdemeanor, class B misdemeanor - the CPL 30.30 readiness deadlines. Exclusions and adjournments make the math contested, which is exactly why the defense keeps its own ledger and moves to dismiss the day the People go over.
Most people hire a lawyer based on how the consultation feels. A better test is whether the lawyer can explain, without notes, how the 2025 discovery amendments changed the 30.30 fight in their client's borough. The machinery above is where NYC cases are quietly won - and it changed eleven months ago. Ask any lawyer you interview about it.
Was the statement voluntary, and were Miranda rights honored? Lose the confession, and many cases lose their spine.
Was the stop, frisk, or search lawful? The gun, the drugs, and everything that flowed from a bad stop can be suppressed with them.
Was the lineup or photo array suggestive? Identification is the most error-prone evidence in criminal law, and New York lets the defense test it before trial.
What of the client's past can the DA use if he testifies - and what "other bad acts" can the jury hear at all? Fought before the first juror is seated.
Five boroughs, five prosecutors, five courthouses.
The borough of arrest sets the courthouse, the DA's office, and the local practice - each office has its own bureaus, its own diversion programs, and its own plea policies. Misdemeanors stay in Criminal Court; indicted felonies move to the Supreme Court's criminal term in the same borough.
Supreme Court, Criminal Term · 100 Centre St / 111 Centre St
Supreme Court, Criminal Term · 320 Jay Street
Supreme Court, Criminal Term · 125-01 Queens Boulevard
Supreme Court, Criminal Term · 265 East 161st Street
Supreme Court, Criminal Term · 26 Central Avenue
The conviction outlives the sentence.
Certain convictions - and certain sentence lengths - trigger removal, bar re-entry, or block naturalization. The difference between 364 days and one year, or between two theft statutes, can be the difference between staying and leaving. Non-citizens need the immigration analysis before any plea, not after.
Medical, legal, financial, security, TLC, and teaching licenses all run background checks with their own rules. FINRA registration, hospital privileges, and city contracts have theirs. The disposition gets negotiated with the client's livelihood on the table.
Public-housing exclusion rules, private-landlord screening, and family-court proceedings all read the criminal docket. An order of protection issued at arraignment can put someone out of their own home the same night - and modifying it is a motion, not a request.
CPL 160.59 seals up to two eligible convictions after ten crime-free years, on motion. The Clean Slate Act adds automatic sealing on its own schedule. For anyone job hunting now, the motion beats the wait - and the best version of sealing is the case that ends in dismissal today.
The record, dated and sourced.
Netflix told the story. The courtroom was 100 Centre Street.
The trial at the center of Inventing Anna was not a federal case and not a Hollywood set - it was a New York State prosecution, tried by Todd Spodek in the same Manhattan Supreme Court building where this firm defends clients every week. Grand jury, Sandoval rulings, a state jury, a state verdict sheet. What 320 million hours of viewers watched is NYC criminal defense - the system this whole page just explained.
On the record, on the wire.
You searched "best." Here is how to actually test it.
Prosecutors know which defense lawyers try cases and which ones fold. The plea offer reflects it. A verifiable trial record - with names and dates - is the single strongest thing a defense lawyer can put on the table.
Some firms sell a name at the consultation and hand the file to whoever is free. Ask who appears at arraignment, who writes the motions, and who you call at 2 a.m. Get it in the retainer.
The law that decides most NYC cases changed in August 2025. A lawyer who cannot explain the 35-day certificate challenge and the totality standard, from memory, is not living in these courtrooms.
Each DA's office has its own bureaus, diversion tracks, and plea policies. The right answer names the part, the programs, and the assistant's likely position - not generic promises.
Through hearings? Through trial? Investigators and experts included or extra? A clear scope in writing beats a low number that doubles at indictment.
A lawyer who guarantees an outcome at the first meeting is selling, not advising. The honest version - here is the exposure, here is the plan, here is what we cannot control - is the one you can build a defense on.
This firm publishes its answers: the trial record is on this page with dates, Todd Spodek argues the cases the firm takes, the discovery analysis above is current to the 2025 amendments, and the phone is answered by a person at any hour. Second-generation practice, defending New Yorkers since 1976.
Questions New Yorkers actually ask.
Someone I love was just arrested. What do I do right now?
Call a lawyer before you do anything else - arraignment should happen within 24 hours of arrest, and counsel retained during that window appears with a bail argument already prepared. Do not discuss the facts on recorded jail calls, and do not post about the case. You can locate someone in custody through the city's inmate lookup, but the productive move is getting counsel to the arraignment part before the case is called.
Should I talk to the detectives? They said they just want my side.
No - not without counsel. A detective who calls to "hear your side" is gathering evidence, and anything said becomes part of the file. Politely decline, take their name and number, and have your lawyer call back. Counsel can often learn what the investigation is about, and sometimes end it, without you saying a word that can be used later. The interview can always happen after advice; it can never be unsaid.
I got a desk appearance ticket. Do I really need a lawyer for that?
Yes. The DAT arraignment is a real arraignment on a real criminal charge, and many DAT cases resolve at the first appearance - on terms set by whoever prepared. Counsel retained before the return date can speak with the assigned assistant, present your record and circumstances, and often position a first arrest for an ACD - adjournment in contemplation of dismissal - which ends in dismissal and sealing with no plea at all.
How long will my case take?
Misdemeanors commonly run a few months; indicted felonies commonly run a year or more, through discovery, motions, and hearings. The prosecution's own deadlines run alongside: ready for trial within 90 days on a class A misdemeanor and six months on a felony under CPL 30.30, with readiness tied to discovery compliance. Some delay works for the defense - witnesses move, memories fade, priorities shift - and some works against it. Managing that clock is strategy, not waiting.
Will I go to jail for a first offense?
For most first-arrest misdemeanors and many nonviolent felonies, no - dismissals, ACDs, violations, conditional discharges, and probation are the common outcomes when the defense is handled well. The exceptions are real: a loaded-firearm conviction carries a 3.5-year mandatory minimum, and violent felonies carry mandatory prison. That is exactly why the charge itself gets fought first - the sentencing exposure follows the charge that survives.
What is the difference between Criminal Court and Supreme Court?
Criminal Court is where every case starts and where misdemeanors finish - arraignments, misdemeanor trials, preliminary matters. Supreme Court's criminal term handles indicted felonies. Despite the name, Supreme Court is New York's trial court, not its highest - the state's top court is the Court of Appeals. Your case moves from one to the other only if a grand jury indicts.
Should I testify in the grand jury?
Sometimes - and it is one of the most consequential decisions in a New York felony. CPL 190.50 gives you the right to testify, and a credible defendant with a clean story can end a case before indictment. But the testimony is under oath, without your lawyer able to object to the prosecutor's questions in the room, and it locks you in forever. This decision gets made case by case, with counsel who has made it many times.
The complaining witness wants to drop the charges. Is the case over?
No. In New York the prosecution belongs to the People, not the complainant - the DA decides whether to proceed, and in domestic-violence cases every borough office has a policy of pressing forward regardless. A recanting or unavailable witness affects what the DA can prove, and the defense uses that - but nobody should assume a case is over because the complainant changed their mind. The order of protection also stays in force until the court modifies it.
Can I get an old New York conviction off my record?
Often, yes. CPL 160.59 allows sealing of up to two eligible convictions - at most one felony - after ten years without a new conviction, on motion, with sex offenses and most violent felonies excluded. The Clean Slate Act adds automatic sealing of eligible convictions on its own timeline: three years for misdemeanors, eight for felonies, after sentence and supervision end. For anyone facing a background check now, the motion is the faster path - and the firm handles both.
The sources on the record.
Tell us where the case stands.
Arrest, DAT, investigation, indictment, or an old record - tell us the borough and the stage. The intake team will identify conflicts and the right next step. If someone is in custody, call.
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