Case Results

All a New Jersey woman wanted to do was borrow her ex’s car to run a few errands. Instead, she found herself in severe legal trouble. One minute, she was driving on the George Washington Bridge and in the next, she’s pulled over for a minor traffic violation. With her child asleep in the backseat, the police officers simply asked to search the vehicle. Not being the owner of the car and thinking nothing of their request, she consented. A hidden compartment was eventually found, revealing a cache of illegal drugs. She now faced indictable drug offenses in Superior Court that included reckless endangerment of a child, possession of narcotics, and a host of vehicle code violations. The car was impounded, her child was taken into protective custody, and she was arrested, now facing time behind bars, a drug conviction, and child custody problems.

After being bailed out of jail, at the recommendation of another attorney, this mother contacted Michael Fienman. Seeing an opportunity to assist his client, attorney Fienman successfully worked to have the charges reduced from superior court to the municipal court level. From there, he negotiated with the prosecution and advocated for his client before the judge. By articulating that his client had no prior knowledge of the compartment or its contents, he effectively arraigned for her to enter a New Jersey diversion option, called “conditional discharge.” After completing six months of probation, the charges will be dismissed and she will be eligible for expungement after two-years. While this experience created a lot of turmoil and potentially could have devastated her life, by utilizing attorney Fienman’s aggressive approach and NJ courtroom experience, no lasting damage was done and she could easily move on.

The outcome of an individual case depends on a variety of factors unique to that case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any similar or future case.