The American Bar Association made a substantial progress to ease the burden on defense attorneys by making available the search database – National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences Of Conviction – that attempts to unify maze of collateral consequences any defendant may confront as a result of being convicted. The search database is in spirit with Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act (UCCA), that was written in response to a hidden multitude of adverse civil consequences that were faced by defendants as a result of these convictions, including housing, employment, and public benefits. To the knowledge of the author, no state has enacted yet enacted UCCA.
Padilla v. Kentucky made clear that, at least in an immigration context, that defense counsel has obligation to advise the adverse effects of conviction on defendant’s immigration status (e.g. deportation proceedings). An argument can be made that Padilla principles can be extended to adverse civil effects beyond immigration context. To accept this argument, means to accept additional labor intensive exercise that the defense counsel must engage in to sort through prospective maze of consequences that potentially apply to a client. This realm of probabilities is substantially reduced when attorney (or defendant) utilizes the National Inventory. It is a work in progress, but good news for New Yorkers is that the New York state is “inventorized.”
National Inventory of the Collateral Consequences of Conviction
Useful Supplemental Material For Collateral Consequences Query (from American Bar Association)
