What is a request to charge?

 

A: At the end of the trial, the judge asks the lawyers to give the court their requests to charge. The court charges the jury with the the law in New York. What that really means is that the judge gives the jury instructions on the law and definitions of what the law means.

Before doing that, each side has an opportunity to give the court specific parts of the law that they believe are important for the purposes of either presenting or defending the case. Based upon the different requests the court will then have a conference with the attorneys that is held behind closed doors in the judge's chambers, with a court stenographer present.

The court  makes rulings of law and decides which sections of the law he will use to explain to the jury. Each attorney then makes a record of any objections to the court's rulings, which may ultimately form the basis of an appeal.

Gerry practices law exclusively in the State of New York. Within New York he practices primarily in the following counties: New York, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Staten Island, Nassau and Suffolk. Technically, Brooklyn is known as "Kings County," and Manhattan and New York City are known as "New York County." Staten Island is known as "Richmond County." These counties make up the New York metropolitan area.