Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: College BB gun shooting

There are two issues here #1 criminal, your son may go to the county prosecuter, state the facts of the incident and offer to press charges. The prosecuter will evaluate the circumstances and then decide whether this warrants prosecution or not.#2 there is potential damages available to your son through civil litigation against the shooter for negligence and perhaps also against the school for breach of duty to protect /failure to supervise etc .Should you be interested in pursuing your civil rights you may call my office @718-834-0087 to scheduale a free consultation.

Re: College BB gun shooting

This must be very hard on you; seeing how your son has been injured. It is my experience that institutions like SUNY will try to 'pretend it didn't happen'.

However, you do have rights and opportunities to require even the most hidebound institution to communicate with you.

The DA's office in the county where the school is located will be able to help you to determine if a criminal action was filed. The information regarding the irreponsible boy's name, etc is a public record and available to you on request. However, they may require you to fill out a 'Freedom of Information Law' request. You don't need a court order or other complex tools to find out whether the boy was charged with a crime (misdemeanor is most likely).

The school is a different story. They are often uncooperative. Since it is a state school, the FOIL request will get you the schools 'incident report' and you can find out if the boy is still a student at the school.

This next part is important legal information: to sue any state agency or governmental entity (like SUNY) you must file a "Notice of Claim" within 90 days of the incident. You may file it late, but cannot wait too long. This is purely a procedural issue, but necessary and important. Send a letter which includes the time, date, place of the event. Describe in simple language the event and the impact on your child. Then mail it to: the president of the school and the administration of SUNY in Albany, and also the secretary of state of the state of new york. This will meet the legal requirements of "Notice of Claim". Then talk to a lawyer about whether you wish to pursue an action against the school or against the boy who harmed your child.

You are welcome to a consultation for no fee at my offices at 42 West 44th Street, NY,NY. Please call (646) 591-5786 for an appointment first.

Re: College BB gun shooting

How awful. SUNY may be liable to your son for failing to supervise the other person and for failing to keep sufficient safety. These cases are highly fact specific and this one depends one what SUNY knew about the other person. If you wish to pursue something you should contact a lawyer asap because you need to either file a claim within 90 days or the shooting or serve a notice of intention to file claim in that same 90 day period. If it has alrady been more than 90 days, it is not necessarily fatal because a motion can be made to file a late claim. You can also sue the shooter. My firm handles these type of cases on a contigency basis. Please call me at 212-622-7180 if you wish to discuss your options.