Leaving the scene of an accident charges dropped in Queens

2020

Our client, a delivery driver, was accused of hitting another person and leaving without exchanging insurance or identifying information. Additionally, our client failed to subsequently report the accident to the NYPD. When our client was contacted by the police, our client partially confessed. Afterwards, our client reached out to us and we set up a case evaluation. During the case evaluation, we discussed the fact that as a misdemeanor, conviction could lead to a permanent criminal record and up to a year in jail. We took on our client’s case and reached out to the Queens prosecutor with the goal of seeing if there was a reasonable way to resolve it. Over the next few months, we obtained medical records of the complainant, accident reports, police paperwork, and court filings. Based on the evidence, we decided that a trial would be too risky if we could reach an acceptable deal pre-trial. Negotiations with the prosecutor didn’t work out initially because they wanted a permanent criminal record and harsh penalties. After more negotiating, we were able to get a deal where our client would only have to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a non-criminal violation, no criminal record.