Coram Nobis

Our NY Traffic Court Lawyers at Palumbo & Associates, PC, have extensive experience representing NY drivers to vacate pleas of guilty to speeding and other moving violations. Have you mailed a speeding ticket to a court with a guilty plea only to find that because of that plea of guilty you are receiving either all or a combination of (1) an expensive DMV assessment, (2) a license suspension or revocation, or (3) an insurance increase. If you find yourself in this situation, we can help! call our NY vacating your speeding conviction lawyers now for a free consultation.

The Coram Nobis proceeding, i.e., a “Do Over”

I know what happened. You got a ticket. You didn’t want to deal with it. you figured ‘I did it anyhow’ so you mailed it in with a guilty plea thinking you’d pay the fine and be done with it. Then you got a nasty gram from the DMV – a bill for a “driver responsibility assessment” that no one told you about, a pending suspension notice, a specialized hearing at the DMV, a huge insurance increase, all of these things, or only some of these things. You didn’t know about any of this – you had no idea all of the collateral consequences of pleading guilty to a NY speeding ticket or tickets. It wasn’t written on the ticket, you didn’t have a lawyer, and all you wanted to do was pay a fine and move on with your life.

Luckily, there is a remedy in the law for just this problem. It is called a Coram Nobis proceeding, where you vacate a speeding ticket or moving violation traffic conviction in New York State. I liken it to the closest thing to a knight in shining armor you are ever going to find in traffic ticket defense, and I like to refer to it simply as a “Do Over.”

A Coram Nobis is a legal writ issued by a court to correct an error to achieve justice when no other remedy is available. The right to make a Coram Nobis proceeding is found in NY Criminal Procedure Law §440.10. The law simply codifies the inherent right in equity found in common law to correct a mistake. While the statute lays out specific situations for making a Coram Nobis motion, and “buyer’s remorse” is not one of them, nonetheless the courts have held that the Coram Nobis proceeding is still available for traffic court defendants in situations not covered under the statute. See, People v. Bachert, 69 N.Y. 2d 593, 599 (1987).

In what situations the Coram Nobis proceeding is effective

The Coram Nobis is made to the trial court where you were convicted, and is not brought to an appellate court. See, People v. Cooks, 67 N.Y.2d 100 (1986). Our office has utilized the Coram Nobis Proceeding in numerous situations, such as:

• When the conviction by a plea or pleas of guilty lead to a license suspension
• When a person plead guilty to driving without insurance and her license was going to be revoked
• When the person plead guilty “as charged,” was represented by counsel, but had ineffective assistance of counsel
• To remove a DWAI from a driving record to reinstate driving privileges
• To remove old convictions from a driver’s history which are preventing a license reinstatement after a DWI revocation
• To vacate pleas of guilty when an officer gave a motorist two speeding tickets on one stop for one occurrence which would have caused a license revocation
• When the conviction causes an expensive driver responsibility assessment from the NYS DMV
• When the conviction caused the employer of a commercial driver to terminate the employment due to the insurance implications
• When the motorist received a large insurance increase due to the conviction
• When a person represented themselves and did not understand the ramification of what they were doing, was given misinformation by court staff or prosecutor, or miscalculated the points given the totality of their history

When making a Coram Nobis motion in some cases we also combine it with a request for relief under NY Criminal Procedure Law § 170.30 & § 170.40, vacating the plea of guilty in the interests of justice. Dismissing in the interest of justice can be granted independent of the Coram Nobis relief in the discretion of the trial court. See, People v. Bryce, 88 N.Y.2d 124 (1996); see also, People v. Clayton, 41 AD2d 204 (2nd Dept. 1973).