Criminal & Traffic Defense

What happens in the first week often matters more than what happens at trial.

Overview

A criminal charge or a serious traffic matter has two sets of consequences: the one handed down in court, and the one that follows you afterwards through a licence, a background check or an employer. Both are worth defending, and they are not always defended the same way.

Loom Light Legal represents people facing misdemeanours, felonies, DWI and traffic matters in New York courts. That includes the arraignment, the negotiation, the hearings and the trial where a trial is the right answer — and, just as often, the work of resolving a matter in a way that keeps a record clean.

Situations we handle

Where people usually start.

You have been charged with a misdemeanour or a felony in a New York court.

You are facing a DWI or a related driving charge.

A traffic violation puts a licence you depend on for work at risk.

Police have contacted you and you have not been charged yet.

You want to understand what a conviction would mean for your record, your job or your licence.

Where it goes wrong

The mistakes that cost the most.

Explaining yourself first and getting advice second

The instinct to clear things up by talking is strong and rarely helps. Accounts given early, informally and without advice become the fixed version of events that everything afterwards is measured against.

Paying the ticket to make it go away

Paying a traffic fine is a plea of guilty. It closes the matter and opens the consequences — points, insurance and, where they accumulate, a licence problem that is far harder to undo than the original ticket was to defend.

Missing the appearance

A missed court date turns a manageable matter into a separate and more serious one. If a date has already been missed, that is a reason to get advice quickly rather than a reason to avoid it.

Our process

How the matter moves.

Tell us what happened

A confidential conversation about the charge, the circumstances, and what has been said so far.

Review the exposure

What the charge carries, what it means for a licence, a record and employment, and what the realistic outcomes are.

Agree the approach

A written scope and fee structure, and a clear decision about whether this is a matter to negotiate or to contest.

Appear and defend

Representation at every appearance, with the evidence examined properly rather than accepted as given.

Resolve and protect the record

A resolution chosen for what it leaves behind, not only for what it disposes of today.

Begin

Speak with Dale Riedel.

Tell us what is happening in a few sentences. We will tell you whether it is something we handle, what the realistic options are, and what it costs to find out more.