Legal Question in Criminal Law in New Jersey

Re: N.E.R.A.

There are a category of crimes which bespeak violence which, upon conviction require imprisonment and the No Early Release Act requires the service of 85% of the sentence imposed before becoming eligible for parole.

The only way to avoid NERA is to avoid conviction of one of those criminal convictions by being acquitted or pleading or being found guilty of a lesser, non-NERA offense.

Gary Moore, Esquire

Hackensack, New Jersey

800 273 7933

www.garymooreattorneyatlaw.com

Re: N.E.R.A.

You may only remove NERA if the sentence was illegal (in other words, the court made a serious error in applying nera). Usually, only the Appeals court can make that determination. NERA is a law, not a guideline. A judge has no choice in imposing it. If the crime is a NERA crime the JUdge has to impose No Early Release Act (that's what NERA means), he can't choose to give you less than nera, just because he wants to be a nice guy. He has no choice. It doesn't matter if it's your first time being charged with a crime. If it's a NERA crime, just because you have no priors it doesn't mean the law doesn't apply. The only way to avoid this is to claim the NERA sentence was illegal because of a technical error.