New York Criminal Procedure Law Section 245.20 is the automatic discovery statute: it requires prosecutors to turn over virtually all case-related material in their possession to the defense without waiting for a request, sets reciprocal (but narrower) obligations on the defense, and ties the entire process to post-arraignment deadlines and the speedy trial clock. CPL 245.20 lists more than twenty categories of material the prosecution must share, and the scope covers all items and information related to the case, not just what the prosecution plans to use at trial.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
What the Prosecution Must Hand Over
The categories under CPL 245.20(1) cover most of what a defense attorney needs to evaluate a case. They include any written, recorded, or oral statement the defendant made to law enforcement; grand jury transcripts of anyone who testified about the case; and all police reports, investigator notes, and statements from people with relevant evidence or information, whether or not those people will testify.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
The prosecution must also provide names and contact information for all non-law-enforcement individuals known to have relevant evidence, flagging which of them it intends to call as witnesses. For law enforcement personnel, names and work affiliations are required. The statute carves out exceptions for confidential informants, victims of sex trafficking and certain sex offenses, and 911 callers, whose identities can be withheld without a court order so long as the prosecution notifies the defense in writing that something has been redacted.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Expert disclosure is handled under paragraph (f). The prosecution must identify each expert it intends to call and provide the expert’s business address, curriculum vitae, publications, and proficiency test results from the past ten years. A written report, if one exists, goes to the defense; if none exists, a written summary of the expert’s expected testimony and the basis for each opinion is required.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Paragraph (g) sweeps in all tapes and electronic recordings, including 911 calls connected to the incident, body-worn camera footage, dashboard camera video, and surveillance recordings. When the total exceeds ten hours, the prosecution can initially disclose only what it plans to use at trial, but it must provide a list describing the source, quantity, and general subject matter of the rest. The defense can then request access to any of them, and the prosecution has fifteen calendar days to comply.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Scientific material falls under paragraph (j): all reports, data, and records related to physical or mental examinations and scientific tests connected to the case. Preliminary screening results, bench notes, and laboratory information management system records are included. If laboratory personnel produced conflicting analyses before reaching a final result, those conflicting findings must be disclosed. The prosecution does not have to turn over results until testing is complete, but once it is, disclosure is mandatory.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Favorable Evidence and Witness Credibility
Paragraph (k) codifies what attorneys call “Brady material” and reaches further than the federal constitutional minimum. The prosecution must automatically disclose all evidence and information tending to negate the defendant’s guilt, reduce the degree of the offense or mitigate culpability, support a potential defense, impeach a prosecution witness, undermine identification of the defendant, provide grounds to suppress evidence, or mitigate punishment. The duty applies whether or not the information is in tangible form, and regardless of whether the prosecutor personally believes it is credible. Favorable evidence must be disclosed as soon as the prosecution receives it, even before the general discovery deadline.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Separate paragraphs reinforce credibility disclosures. Paragraph (l) requires disclosure of all promises, rewards, and inducements given to potential prosecution witnesses in connection with the case, along with any requests those witnesses made for favorable treatment. Paragraph (p) requires a complete record of criminal convictions for both the defendant and all potential prosecution witnesses. Paragraph (q) requires disclosure of any pending criminal cases against potential prosecution witnesses, when known to the prosecution.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
What the Defense Has to Disclose Back
Discovery runs in both directions. Subdivision 4 imposes reciprocal obligations on the defense, though the scope is narrower than what the prosecution must disclose and subject to constitutional limits on self-incrimination.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
The defense must share materials in several of the same categories required of the prosecution: expert witness information, electronic recordings, photographs and drawings, scientific test results, tangible evidence, and summaries of certain testimony. The key limitation is that the defense only has to disclose items it intends to introduce at trial or a pretrial hearing. The defense also has to provide the names, addresses, birth dates, and all statements of non-defendant witnesses it plans to call.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
One carve-out protects cross-examination strategy. If the defense plans to call a witness solely to impeach a prosecution witness, the defense does not need to disclose that person’s identity until after the prosecution witness has actually testified at trial.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
When Disclosure Has to Happen
CPL 245.10 sets the deadlines, measured from arraignment. When the defendant is in custody, the prosecution has twenty calendar days to complete initial disclosure. When the defendant is out of custody, the deadline extends to thirty-five calendar days.2New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.10 – Timing of Discovery
If discoverable materials are exceptionally voluminous, or the prosecution has not yet obtained them despite good-faith efforts, the deadline can be paused for up to an additional thirty calendar days without a court order. The statute names body-worn camera footage, surveillance video, and dashboard camera recordings as the kind of material that commonly triggers this extension.2New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.10 – Timing of Discovery Any further extension beyond the automatic thirty-day pause requires a motion under CPL 245.70 and a showing of good cause.
The Ongoing Duty After Initial Disclosure
The initial deadline is not the end of the obligation. Under CPL 245.60, both sides have a continuing duty to turn over any new material they discover after the initial exchange, as soon as practicable. If the prosecution learns of additional evidence or information that would have been discoverable earlier, it must notify the defense and provide the material promptly. The same obligation runs in reverse: new material in the hands of the defense that falls within its reciprocal categories must be shared with the prosecution.3New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.60 – Continuing Duty to Disclose
What Can Be Withheld or Redacted
Not everything moves without limits. CPL 245.70 allows either side to seek a protective order when good cause exists to deny, restrict, delay, or place conditions on discovery. A court might, for example, order that certain sensitive materials be available only to the defendant’s attorney and not shared directly with the defendant. When that happens, the court must tell the defendant on the record that counsel is legally barred from showing them the protected material.4New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.70 – Protective Orders
Some redactions do not require a court order at all. Under CPL 245.20(6), either party can redact certain sensitive information on its own, including the physical addresses of witnesses in specific circumstances. The prosecution can also withhold identifying information for undercover officers without a protective order, as long as it notifies the defense in writing that something has been withheld. When part of a document is discoverable but another part justifies withholding, the prosecution must disclose the discoverable portions and provide written notice that other parts have been withheld.1New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.20 – Automatic Discovery
Certificate of Compliance and the Speedy Trial Clock
After completing its disclosure obligations, the prosecution must file a Certificate of Compliance with the court and serve it on the defense. The certificate is a formal declaration that the prosecutor has exercised due diligence and made reasonable inquiries to identify and provide all discoverable material.5New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.50 – Certificates of Compliance and Readiness for Trial
The certificate matters because of its tie to CPL 30.30. The prosecution cannot be deemed ready for trial until it has filed a valid Certificate of Compliance. If the certificate is missing or invalid, the speedy trial clock keeps running against the prosecution, and the time counts as chargeable delay. Whenever the prosecution announces readiness, the court must make an on-the-record inquiry into actual readiness.5New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.50 – Certificates of Compliance and Readiness for Trial This is where discovery failures most often cascade into dismissals: a prosecutor who cannot certify compliance cannot stop the clock, and once that clock runs out, the charges get dismissed.
What Happens When a Side Doesn’t Comply
CPL 245.80 gives courts a graduated range of remedies when either side fails to meet its discovery obligations. Any sanction must be appropriate and proportionate to the actual harm caused by the failure. Regardless of whether the defense can show specific prejudice, it must be given reasonable time to prepare a response to any late-arriving material.6New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.80 – Remedies or Sanctions for Non-Compliance
Available remedies include additional discovery orders compelling further disclosure, continuances granting extra time to prepare, orders reopening a completed hearing to address new material, adverse inference instructions telling the jury it may assume the undisclosed material would have been unfavorable to the non-complying party, preclusion of the undisclosed evidence or testimony at trial, and dismissal of some or all charges.
Dismissal is the most severe option, and courts do not reach for it lightly. The statute explicitly requires a judge to consider all other remedies first and to find that nothing short of dismissal adequately addresses the prejudice.6New York State Senate. New York Criminal Procedure Law 245.80 – Remedies or Sanctions for Non-Compliance In practice, preclusion of a key piece of evidence or an adverse inference instruction is often enough to reshape the outcome of a case without ending it.