Practice Areas

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is the agency responsible for licensing and regulating New York City’s medallion (yellow) taxicabs, for-hire vehicles (liveries and black cars), commuter vans, paratransit vehicles (ambulettes) and some luxury limousines. The Hon. Matthew W. Daus is the Chair of the TLC.

The TLC licenses and regulates over 50,000 vehicles and approximately 100,000 drivers, performs safety and emissions inspections of approximately 12,000 medallion taxicabs three times each year, and holds numerous hearings for violations of City and TLC rules and regulations. It is the most active taxi and limousine licensing regulatory agency in the United States.

To find out more about the TLC, or to review the agency’s procedures, rules and regulations and programs, you may review the constantly updated information available throughout this web site, or you may call the TLC’s Customer Service Hotline at 311.

You should be aware of the TLC’s Critical Driver Program. According to TLC guidelines, holders of both Taxicab Operators and FHV (For Hire Vehicle) licenses may be suspended if they have accrued six or more DMV license points within 15 months, and revoked if they have accrued ten or more DMV points within 15 months. If you are thinking of retaining a lawyer, it is important that you do so prior to the hearing rather than after you have a negative outcome. Generally, all suspensions and revocations are preceded by a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. Upon review, if the total number of points meets either the six or ten-point thresholds, the appropriate action, whether suspension or revocation, is then taken. The TLC is not limited by considering only those violations taking place in the context of TLC-licensed activity.

If you have a hearing with the TLC it may be at one of several addresses. The Legal Department is located at: 40 Rector Street, New York, New York, 10006 on the fifth floor. The department is open 9:00 am to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays, by appointment only. Please call (212) 676-1135 for appointments.

It is important to appear at all TLC hearings to avoid additional penalties. According to TLC rules, respondents can request reschedules 5 days or more in advance of hearings, for cause. In additon, it is important to bring your TLC license to hearings to avoid additional charges.

In New York City pink tickets are given out for low level violations, including some misdemeanors. Including: Open alcoholic container in public, Urinating in public, Disorderly Conduct, Reckless Driving. In Manhattan hearings are held at 346 Broadway Criminal Court or 314 54th Street, as indicated on the face of the ticket. In many cases these tickets can be reduced to less serious or lower or no point charges through plea bargaining.

Our firm also specializes in representing drivers in DWI charges, assisting from the time of arrest until final disposition. Our attorneys can also help with Safety Hearings resulting from automotive accidents or significant points. We can also help avoid the suspension of operating privileges and sometimes save you money.

Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) is a crime. In NYS, the penalties include the loss of driving privileges, fines, and a possible jail term.

Your judgment, coordination and ability to drive a vehicle change when you consume any amount of alcohol. The level of impairment depends on five conditions:

1. the amount of alcohol you drink,
2. the amount of food you eat before or while you drink alcohol,
3. the length of time you drink alcohol,
4. your body weight, and
5. your gender.

There is no quick method to become sober. The best method is to wait until your body absorbs the alcohol. The average rate that your body processes alcohol is approximately one drink per hour. Generally 1 drink equals 1 ounce of 100-proof liquor, one five ounce glass of table wine or one 12-ounce bottle of regular beer. Most people need about one hour to metabolize one drink.

If a police officer believes you are intoxicated, you will be arrested and requested to take a BAC test. If convicted you will face a substantial fine, license revocation, higher insurance costs, legal fees and a possible jail sentence. (See Section 1192, NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law) If you refuse to take the BAC test your license will be suspended by DMV at arraignment and later there is the possibility that it may be revoked at a hearing. You are also subject to a civil penalty of $200-500. (Section 1194, NYS Vehicle & Traffic Law)

The alcohol and drug-related violations in New York State are as follows:

DWI: Driving While Intoxicated; .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC) or higher or other evidence of intoxication.

DWAI: Driving While Ability Impaired (by alcohol); .05 BAC to .07 BAC, or other evidence of impairment.

DWAI / Drugs: Driving While Ability Impaired (by a drug that is not alcohol).

Chemical Test Refusal: A driver who refuses to take a chemical test (normally a test of breath, blood or urine) can receive a driver license revocation and must pay a $300 civil penalty ($350 for a driver of commercial vehicles) to apply for a new driver license. A driver who refuses a chemical test during the five years after a DWI-related charge will have their driver license revoked for one year and must pay a $750 civil penalty to apply for a new driver license.

Zero Tolerance Law: A driver who is less than 21 years of age and who drives with a .02 BAC to .07 BAC violates the Zero Tolerance Law.

Penalties for Alcohol-related and Drug-related Violations

1. Surcharges are added to misdemeanors ($160) and felonies ($270).
2. The driver license penalties for drivers under the age of 21 and for professional drivers are different.

If you receive your first conviction for DWI or DWAI and you participate in the Drinking Driver Program (DDP), you can usually receive a conditional license. The DMV determines if you are eligible for the DDP. A judge can stop your enrollment in the DDP.

Consequences of DWI conviction can result in prison, fines, loss of driving privileges, increased or canceled car insurance, lost job opportunities, as well as significant personal impact. Many employers will not hire you if you have a drunk driving conviction in your driver’s history. Some companies go back a certain number of years. Others look back as far as your state’s driver’s history will report a record. Each state’s drivers history is different.

Being convicted of a DWI may cause your insurance rates to go up or worse. Whether your rates go up depends on whether your insurance company finds out about your arrest and what its rules are for drivers who are arrested for a DUI.

Insurance companies generally check motor vehicle records on their policyholders every three years, so a DUI arrest might go unnoticed. Their focus is generally on convictions (pleading or being found guilty of charges) rather than on DUI charges alone. However, even if your insurance company does notice your DUI, there’s no guarantee that it would cancel your policy or raise your insurance rates. Rules vary by insurance company but insurers say they generally look at a policyholder’s total driving record and claims history when considering what penalty, if any, they will assess for a DUI.

The DMV has administrative control over noncriminal traffic cases to relieve the backlogs of courts in certain jurisdictions. Pursuant to Vehicle and Traffic Law Article 2-A, the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles has established a system for the administrative adjudication of moving traffic infractions which are civil in nature (15 NYCRR Part 121.5). In each jurisdiction in which the program is established, the Commissioner has located one or more Traffic Violations Bureaus (“TVB”) staffed with Motor Vehicle Violations Bureau Referees (MVRs), supervisors and clerical personnel. TVB are established within the cities of New York, Buffalo, Rochester and the five western townships of Suffolk County. In localities where the caseload is more manageable, regular traffic courts handle noncriminal traffic cases.

Vehicle and Traffic Law §236 requires that all MVRs be attorneys. An MVR may issue subpoenas to compel the appearance of witnesses and the production of documents and is authorized to “enter judgments and enforce them, . . . in the same manner as the enforcement of money judgments in civil actions in any court of competent jurisdiction.”(Vehicle & Traffic Law Section 237). MVRs conduct original hearings for all non-misdemeanor moving violations which occur in their jurisdiction including cases involving fatal accidents, chemical test refusals, persistent violators, drivers with physical or mental disabilities and charges of driving with a suspended license or revoked license and driving without insurance. Further, MVRs conduct safety hearings and investigate charges of violations of the Vehicle and Traffic Law and the Commissioner’s regulations by commercial establishments such as repair shops, inspection stations and dealers.

Refusal Hearings

This is the DMV Administrative Hearing to determine whether a motorist refused to take a lawful blood alcohol test at the time of the car stop. Should it be established that the driver refused to take a blood alcohol test that was offered in a timely manner, with proper warnings, where there was probable cause for the car stop, the Court will order a 12 month revocation of the driver license. This is true even if the DWI charges are not pursued in criminal court.

These Hearings are held at 19 Rector St., 2nd Fl.

Commercial trucking Companies must have legal representation in Criminal Court. Fines for moving violations, including overweight tickets can be thousands of dollars, let us help you get the best representation possible.

Cash bail is simply the amount of cash that you must present to any jail in New York City (24 hours a day) in order to obtain the release of the accused while his case progresses. The good news is, that as long as the accused makes all of his court appearances, you will get all (or nearly all) of your money back. The city, never missing an opportunity to capture some revenue, keeps a piece of the action. (The keeping of this small percentage of the bail has actually been challenged in court, but upheld by

A bail bond is a promise by a special company like an insurance company to pay the city the amount of the bond if the accused fails to come back to court. When a bail bond company agrees to post a bond for an accused, they are agreeing to guarantee his presence in court.

The good news with a bail bond is that bail bond companies are often times willing to post substantial bail bonds for people for far less than 100% of the bond. In fact, most bail bondsmen will write bonds for about 10% of the value of the bond. For example, if the bond is written for $15,000, you could probably find a bondsman who would only charge you about $1500. They will typically require, however, that you post additional cash for them to hold, and will require that a number of people guarantee to reimburse them if the accused fails to return and they lose the bond amount.

The bad news with a bail bond, is that, unlike with cash bail, you will not get the money you put down back. The money you give the bail bondsman is the fee he charges to write the bond. You will get back any additional security the bondsman requires, but that fee is gone forever.

Other New York Bail Bondsmen can be found usually in offices nearby.

Toward the end of the arraignment, after the prosecutor and the defense lawyer have made their arguments, the judge may say a few words and then finish with the phrase (or something like it) “Bail is $2500 over $1500” or “$2500 A or B”. This is the most typical way of setting bail.

The two types of bail the judge is referring to are the two most common forms of bail — cash or insurance company bail bond (or more simply bail bond).

According to the Department of Corrections web site: the New York City Department of Corrections will accept the following forms of cash bail:

• United States cash for the full amount
• Cashier’s/Tellers’ checks, in any amount not greater than the bail amount
• Bank money order, up to $1000
• Federal Express money order, up to $1000
• U.S. Postal money order, up to $1000
• Travelers Express Company money order, up to $1000
• Western Union money order, up to $1000
• Check issued by the city Finance Administrator for a bail refund. (There is no $1000 maximum but the check must not exceed the amount of the new bail.)
• Veterans Administration Check up to $1000
• U.S. Government checks, up to $1,000
• Cash in combination with any of the above for the total amount of the bail

NOTE: The $1000 limits noted above apply to an individual instrument only. They are not meant to prohibit multiple instruments. For example, the City will accept FIVE bank money orders for $1000 each in payment for a $5000 bail. The total of the checks, however, must not exceed the amount of the bail.

It is best to pay bail at the correctional facility where the person is being held; however, bail may be paid at any of the following correctional facilities. For further information on inmates, bail, visiting hours, and travel directions call (718) 546-0700.

Bronx House of Detention
653 River Avenue, Bronx, NY 10451

Brooklyn House of Detention
275 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201

Manhattan House of Detention (The Tombs)
125 White Street, New York, NY 10013

Queens House of Detention
126-02 82nd Avenue, Queens, NY 11415

Riker’s Island
11-11 Hazen Avenue, East Elmhurst, NY 11370

A defendant can be released from the courtroom, if you post bail when the person actually appears before the court. Notify the court clerk of your intention to pay bail. The clerk will direct you to the cashier’s office in that county.

The person posting bail must present personal identification and must provide the New York State Identification (NYSID) Number of the person to be bailed. (Be sure to get this information from the attorney who handles the arraignment). Another form of bail can involve presenting a piece of property to the city. This form of bail usually comes up in cases in which the bail is extraordinarily high. Typically, it will not be initially set at the arraignment, but will be requested by an attorney by way of writ or negotiation with the prosecutor and consent of a judge.

The property will sometimes be required to have double the equity of the amount of the bail. For example, if the bail is $50,000, the property will have to have $100,000.

Judges usually set two forms of bail at arraignment. There is some authority that judges are required to set at least two forms of bail at arraignment, although many judges these days disagree and will set CASH ONLY bail.

If the judge at arraignments sets CASH ONLY bail, then the only way to bail out the accused is to post the full amount of the bail with the city. If the judge sets CASH ONLY bail, then you cannot go to a bail bondsman to get the accused out of jail. Because the law is fairly clear that CASH ONLY bail is usually improper, a lawyer can take a writ of habeas corpus and essentially “appeal” the setting of only one form of bail. Writs in these circumstances are often successful, but represent a delay of 1 to 3 days or more before they can be heard.

When judges set a bond amount as well as a cash amount, you will often find that the bond amount is significantly higher than the cash amount. That’s because judges are aware of how bail bonds work. They know that bail bondsmen will write bonds for considerably less up front than the full amount of the bond. Therefore, many judges will set the bond amount at a level where the amount of the cash alternative will be about the amount a bail bondsman would require anyway.

For example, if the cash bail amount is $5000, the bond amount that would be set might be between $10,000 and $15,000. Although the bond fee might be considerably less than $5000, most bondsmen would probably want about $5000 in cash to hold until the conclusion of the case.

The first principle, before all others, is that you probably ought to make bail or bond for someone you care about who is in jail as soon as possible.

This may sound obvious, but there are circumstances when friends and family members may be angry at the accused for having gotten himself into a bad situation, probably against the advice of friends or family to begin with. Occasionally friends and family may be under the mistaken impression that delaying the bail-out process will teach some kind of lesson.

Well-meaning frustrated parents often fall into the trap of “It might wake him up to spend some time in jail”. Parents who want to teach with tough love are probably better off bailing the child out and attempting just about anything else to teach the child a lesson. Drive him up to the top of a tall mountain and make him hike home with a 50 pound backpack. Jail is a horrible brutal incredibly dangerous place.

General Guideline to govern this situation: few lessons worth learning were ever learned in jail.

Bail varies widely from judge to judge or depend simply on the judge’s mood on a particular day. Nevertheless, there are certain very broad, very general rules of thumb.

Range = $0 – $5000 : With some exceptions, first arrest misdemeanor cases can probably bet on a much lower range with a fairly decent expectation of $0 or ROR. For those with prior criminal histories, it is still possible to obtain ROR but it becomes increasingly unlikely as the number of prior cases increases. Bail beyond $5000 for a misdemeanor is extremely rare. If you want to be prepared to make bail right at the arraignment immediately, and you can afford it, you might want to have $1500 in cash available (assuming you are comfortable carrying this amount of money in court). That should be sufficient to handle most circumstances where the charges are solely misdemeanors.

Felonies are more difficult to suggest general guidelines because some felonies are far more serious than others.

For the most serious felonies, (A felonies) judges oftentimes refuse to set any bail at all. This is called REMAND. Occasionally judges can be convinced to set some bail on such cases, but it will be astonishingly high (for example, $250,000). Most of the time, however, judges simply REMAND people accused of A felonies.

Judges can occasionally be convinced to release people charged with less serious felonies without any bail at all or on what might be considered “misdemeanor” bail.

Robbery and Assault (felony) cases will often generate bail in the range of $1500 – $25,000 or more depending on the seriousness of the robbery, and the defendant’s age and prior criminal history.

Realize that anyone with a prior felony criminal history who is charged with a new felony is almost certainly going to have significant bail set (meaning a likely range of $3500 – $25,000+)

A bail sufficiency hearing or surety hearing is something you might hear (typically in drug or fraud cases) the judge say at the conclusion of the arraignment when he sets bail.

That will add an extra layer or two of difficulty to getting the person out of jail. That means that before the city will accept bail for the accused, there must be a hearing (or the prosecutors must informally agree) to make sure that the money being used has a legitimate source.

The idea of the bail sufficiency hearing was developed to respond to the fear that large scale drug dealers would simply use their illegal profits to obtain release from custody. Of course the prosecutors have taken the bail sufficiency hearing and bled its use into other areas and types of cases.

What will happen is that the person who wants to make the bail will be required to show that the money came from a legitimate source (for example, that he has a job, assets, and/or bank accounts that would reasonably exist for someone engaged in a legitimate activity). The person who shows up with a garbage bag full of $100,000 cash who is unemployed and unable to explain how he got the money is likely going to be out of luck at such a hearing. These hearings are usually something that can be avoided after negotiations with the prosecutor.

The real problem is that the bail sufficiency hearing will delay the release process because the hearing must be scheduled. The corrections department is supposed to automatically produce the defendant to the courtroom as soon as the bail is tentatively posted, but this is often a confused and frustrating experience for the defendant, and the defendant’s friends and family. You are best off obtaining the assistance of a lawyer.