False Arrest & Imprisonment // Police Misconduct // Excessive Force

You have Civil Rights guaranteed to you by the United States Constitution and the New York State Constitution. Police Officers must have probable cause to stop or arrest you. Even when the police have probable cause, they are not permitted to use excessive force or brutalize arrestees. The unfortunate reality is that Police Officers stop and arrest innocent people without probable cause every day in New York, and that police officers frequently use excessive force in effecting arrests.

Being arrested when you did nothing wrong is not something you shake off. You were handcuffed in front of people who know you. You spent hours, or days, in a cell. You may have lost a job, missed a shift, or had to explain to an employer why you never showed up.

A false arrest case is not about whether you were eventually released, and it is not about whether the charges were dropped. It is about whether there was a lawful basis to take your liberty in the first place.

I have brought these claims against the City of New York, the NYPD, and other agencies for over 23 years, in State and Federal Court.

Cases I handle

• Arrests made without a lawful basis

• Detention that continued after the reason for it was gone

• Arrests based on a mistaken or fabricated identification

• Being held on a warrant that was not yours

• A street stop that turned into an arrest

• Arrests made on the word of a store, a landlord, a neighbor, or an employer

• Prolonged detention before arraignment

• Arrests arising out of a dispute where the wrong person was taken

• Arrests involving excessive force

A claim against the City is not an ordinary claim

If your claim is against the City of New York, the NYPD, or another government agency or its employees, a notice of claim must be served within 90 days. Claims for intentional wrongs must be brought within one year.

Not every claim arising out of the same incident runs on the same clock. If you think you may be out of time, call anyway — that is a question to answer on the phone, not on your own.

State court and federal court

Some of these cases belong in State court. Others are brought in Federal court under Section 1983, the federal civil rights statute. As a Section 1983 lawyer in Brooklyn, I bring them where they belong, and that decision depends on the facts of what happened to you.

If you still have an open criminal case, tell me that on the first call. Where the criminal case stands affects what can be filed and when.

Why calling early matters

Video is the whole case in many of these, and video does not last. Precinct cameras, Central Booking, body-worn camera, store cameras, and bus and train cameras are all overwritten on their own schedules — some of them within days. The sooner I am in the case, the sooner that footage can be demanded.

We offer a free consultation. You pay nothing unless we recover for you — no fee, and no reimbursement of case expenses.