October 09, 2013

• Steven Topazio wrote this May 5, 2014 at 4:10 am

The client, a 25 year old college graduate, was arrested for uttering a forged prescription, hired Boston Criminal Lawyer Steven J. Topazio to represent her. Attorney Topazio learned that his client was on probation in another court and was facing a probation surrender on the other case due to the new arrest. The other case out of the East Boston District Court was a drug possession case where the client received a continuance without a finding (CWOF) and was ordered to submit to random urines and to remain drug free. The client decided to hire Attorney Topazio after her prior counsel on the probation surrender case lost the probation surrender hearing which resulted in the court vacating the CWOF and the client being committed to the house of corrections for a period of nine months. Today, Attorney Topazio convinced the district attorney to give his client a nine month committed sentence, nunc pro tunc to July 31, 2013 (the day the client was held in custody on her probation surrender case). Nunc pro tunc is a Latin phrase which means now for then. In general, a court ruling “nunc pro tunc” applies retroactively to correct an earlier ruling. Attorney Topazio argued that his client’s bad choices did not define his client, but rather his client was defined by what she had done after the bad decisions and that she should not have to serve any more time for this new crime, and the court agreed.