CPL § 540.30

Remission of forfeiture · as in force on May 31, 2026

§ 540.30 Remission of forfeiture.

1. After the forfeiture of a bail bond or cash bail, as provided in section 540.10, an application for remission of such forfeiture may be made to a court as follows:

(a) If the forfeiture has been ordered by a superior court, the application must be made in such court;

(b) If the forfeiture has been ordered by a local criminal court, the application must be made to a superior court in the county, except that if the local criminal court which ordered the forfeiture was a district court, the application may alternatively be made to that district court.

2. The application must be made within one year after the forfeiture of the bail is declared upon at least five days notice to the district attorney and service of copies of the affidavits and papers upon which the application is founded. The court may grant the application and remit the forfeiture or any part thereof, upon such terms as are just. The application may be granted only upon payment of the costs and expenses incurred in the proceedings for the enforcement of the forfeiture.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/540.30

In plain English

(1) After forfeiture under § 540.10, an application to remit a superior-court forfeiture goes to that court; for a local-court forfeiture it goes to a county superior court, though a district court may hear remission of its own forfeiture.
(2) The applicant must apply within 1 year after forfeiture, give the district attorney at least 5 days’ notice, and serve the supporting papers. ★ The court may remit all or part on just terms only after payment of enforcement costs and expenses.

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 Clerk in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Clerk: Criminal Procedure Law; 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.