Penal Law § 215.59 · Article 215. Other Offenses Relating to Judicial and Other Proceedings
Bail jumping and failing to respond to an appearance ticket; defense
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 215.59 Bail jumping and failing to respond to an appearance ticket; defense.
In any prosecution for bail jumping or failing to respond to an appearance ticket, it is an affirmative defense that:
1. The defendant's failure to appear on the required date or within thirty days thereafter was unavoidable and due to circumstances beyond his control; and
2. During the period extending from the expiration of the thirty day period to the commencement of the action, the defendant either:
(a) appeared voluntarily as soon as he was able to do so, or
(b) although he did not so appear, such failure of appearance was unavoidable and due to circumstances beyond his control.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN215.59
- Text hash
- sha256 540fb910099ef4dcb3821cc7237555f66d23aed50664ddb8c7022ee186c1bc74
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.