CPL § 470.25

Determination of appeals by intermediate appellate courts; form and content of order · as in force on May 31, 2026

§ 470.25 Determination of appeals by intermediate appellate courts;

form and content of order.

1. An order of an intermediate appellate court which affirms a judgment, sentence or order of a criminal court need only state such affirmance.

2. An order of an intermediate appellate court which reverses or modifies a judgment, sentence or order of a criminal court must contain the following:

(a) A statement of whether the determination was upon the law or upon the facts or as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, or upon any specified two or all three of such bases; and

(b) If the decision is rendered without opinion, a brief statement of the specific grounds of the reversal or modification; and

(d) If the determination is exclusively upon the law, a statement of whether or not the facts upon which the criminal court's judgment, sentence or order is based have been considered and determined to have been established. In the absence of such a statement, it is presumed that the intermediate appellate court did not consider or make any determination with respect to such facts.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/470.25

In plain English

An intermediate appellate order must show what the court decided and, when it reverses or modifies, why and what follows.

(1) An affirmance need only state that the judgment, sentence, or order is affirmed.
(2) A reversal or modification must state whether it rests on law, facts, discretion in the interest of justice, or a stated combination; briefly give the grounds if there is no opinion; and state the corrective action. ★ If the decision rests only on law, it must say whether the underlying facts were considered and found established; without that statement, the court is presumed not to have decided those facts.

Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.

In print

This provision appears in Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 2 — The Court Officer: Criminal Procedure Law; Volume 2 — Your Career: Criminal Procedure in Plain English.