Neighborhood Defender Service, Inc.

Unlike most traditional public defender offices, NDS can begin representation before a client is arrested. Early entry can dramatically improve the outcome of a case. We can intercede on the client’s behalf with law enforcement, negotiate surrenders where appropriate and enhance public safety for our clients, their families and communities.

Early entry into a criminal case allows NDS attorneys to interview clients and witnesses earlier, begin investigations, negotiate with law enforcement, and make other preparations before the client goes to court for the first time. NDS can also arrange a client’s surrender to law enforcement, facilitating a safe interaction with police for our clients. Occasionally, NDS’s ability to enter into a case early results in the police not making an arrest.

At NDS, each client is represented by a team, rather than by an individual attorney. NDS defense teams are made up of attorneys, investigators, social workers, team administrators, and often law school and social work interns. We strive to provide the best possible services to our clients by combining the knowledge, skills, and attention of all of the team members. We devote significant resources to investigators to help our lawyers vigorously defend our clients.

NDS social workers also provide intensive services for our clients including advocacy for alternatives to incarceration, educational support, psychiatric and psychological referrals, and drug treatment placements.

Team administrators act as the lynchpins that hold the teams together, coordinating between attorneys, clients, their families, the courts, and outside social service providers. Our criminal defense teams also work closely with other NDS programs to ensure that our clients receive effective and efficient legal representation.

NDS offers full representation on Family Court cases brought by the New York City Administration for Children’s Service (ACS) alleging abuse or neglect against a parent. Keeping families together and communities intact.

Being arrested and brought to criminal court can often lead to ACS involvement, and serious, unjust repercussions in a client’s family structure and daily life. Having ACS in one’s life can lead to long-lasting negative effects for families, including unnecessary, traumatic removals of children and lengthy, intrusive Family Court proceedings that often ultimately show no wrong-doing by a parent.

NDS offers family defense services to our existing criminal clients, but also to other members of the upper Manhattan community. We aim to enforce a family’s constitutionally-protected rights to privacy, integrity, and contact, and to help families navigate the complicated and interrelated systems of Family Court and ACS.

NDS’ Civil Defense Practice represents clients facing the loss of the essentials of life due to contact with the criminal justice system or child welfare systems. Our services include representation in: immigration defense; eviction prevention; asset forfeiture; employment defense; school suspension; public benefits; healthcare advocacy and civil rights litigation.

The uniqueness of the practice, where attorneys, advocates and social workers collaborate on client representation, ensures comprehensive solutions to our clients’ and community needs. This innovative approach mitigates these consequences and can altogether prevent the destabilizing effects of family separation due to deportation or loss of housing and employment.

Our advocates and attorneys can be found working on behalf of our clients related to Housing, Employment, and Asset Forfeiture.

Young adults are at once the most hopeful segment of our population and at the same time a disparately targeted group within the criminal justice system. The Youth Law Practice provides the benefits of NDS’s team-based representation to those aged 7 through 18 who are criminally accused, whether they are prosecuted as adults in Supreme Court or as delinquents in Family Court.

Youth law attorneys coordinate with a team of social workers, investigators, and the housing and immigration attorneys on the NDS staff. They also work with educational and mental health specialists, as well as with community organizations and with professors and law students from local law schools and universities.

Nationally recognized as pioneers in this area, the Youth Law Practice brings NDS’ early-intervention and interdisciplinary approach to the defense and rehabilitation of young adults. Our goal is to work with the accused young adult, including his or her family and community, in the broadest manner by combining educational advocacy, social services, and the highest-quality legal representation.