What moves a case into felony territory
In New York, assault in the second and first degrees are felonies. The factors that tend to put a case there are a more serious injury, an object used as a weapon, or, for some charges, the job the injured person was doing. A dangerous instrument can be an everyday object such as a bottle or a boot, depending on how it was used. Serious physical injury is a defined and higher threshold than physical injury, and whether it was reached is one of the most frequently contested points in a felony assault case.
How a felony case moves differently
After arrest, a felony case begins on a complaint in a local criminal court, but in New York it generally cannot go to a felony trial without a grand jury indictment unless the defendant agrees to waive that step. You may have the right to testify before the grand jury if notice is given in time, and whether to do so is a serious decision to make with counsel, not alone. A felony conviction carries consequences that a misdemeanor often does not, including a federal bar on possessing firearms, and it can weigh heavily in immigration and professional licensing matters.
Where we focus early
The injury evidence comes first. We seek the full medical records, not only the emergency room summary, and we look at how the injury was described at different points, since descriptions can grow or shrink over time. We look at whether an object was really used as the charge claims and how it was recovered, and we try to secure video before it is lost. We also review your release conditions and any order of protection, and we plan around the grand jury timeline so that decisions are not made in a rush.
