Relates to the remission of bail by city courts

BILL NUMBER:A10688

Title of bill

An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to the remission of bail by city courts

This is one in a series of measures being introduced at the request of the Chief Administrative Judge upon the recommendation of her Local Courts Advisory Committee.

This measure amends section 540.30 of the Criminal Procedure Law to authorize the City Courts to remit bail forfeitures.

CPL 540.10 provides that a criminal court may forfeit bail posted by a defendant where he or she fails to appear in court without sufficient cause. CPL 540.10(1), (2). Currently, once forfeiture has occurred in a local criminal court, the only way to retrieve the bail is to make an application to a superior court, except that, when bail is forfeited by a District Court, an application for remission may be made to that court. CPL 540.30(b).

There is no reason to limit that exception to the District Court and require a City Court defendant to go to Supreme Court to obtain a order directing remission of the bail. Since the information necessary to decide a remission application is usually contained in the City Court records, that court generally is best suited to determine such an appli- cation. This measure also would relieve superior courts of the burden of deciding applications involving typically small amounts of forfeited bail.

This measure, which would have no fiscal impact upon the State, would take effect immediately.

2010 Legislative History: None. New proposal.