New York Legal Blog

When a person receives a prison sentence, this does not negate his or her civil rights. In fact, as the American Civil Liberties Union points out, the U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly stated people in prison still have the same fundamental rights protected by the Constitution as those who are not incarcerated, including the right to have legal representation and access to the court system.

Unfortunately, isolation, lack of resources and other barriers often prevent prisoners from asserting their rights or protecting themselves from violence or abuse at the hands of their guards. The New York Daily News reports on one such case that resulted in a settlement for an inmate of Rikers Island, New York City's primary jail.

If there is something that seems like it shouldn't happen, it's the shielding of records that should be available to the public. In New York, the top court determined that it would continue to shield the police misconduct records from the public.

New York's Civil Rights Law allows personnel files of police officers to be sealed. The files belonging to firefighters and corrections officers may be sealed as well. However, there is a problem since sealing those records could also seal away a history of misconduct. What does that mean for citizens? It means they don't know if an officer has been disciplined for misconduct or if they've been involved in negative situations in the past.

Should you face criminal charges in New York, you may wish to familiarize yourself with the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. This long-held legal doctrine could become a major factor as you and your attorney go about defending you.

The U.S. Supreme Court first hinted at what would become known as the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine in the 1886 case of Boyd v. United States. The phrase itself was coined by Justice Felix Frankfurter in Nardone v. United States, a 1939 SCOTUS case.

Suffering an injury in any type of accident (construction, motor vehicle, violent attacks, etc) can change your life forever. You might not be able to return to work or school. You might not be able to care for yourself anymore. You also might need a lot of medical care in order to recover from said injury. Today, we will take a look at the damages you can seek in a personal injury claim.

Any victim of a personal injury accident is entitled to file a claim for lost wages, both current and future. You will need to provide your current employment information, including salary and other data to help determine the amount of money that can be recovered. An estimate of future earnings if you were healthy will be made by your attorney should you not be able to return to work.