Twenty-two years making arrests. Twenty-five defending them.

Randall F. Inniss, Esq. served with the New York State Police from 1983 to 2005. He joined at twenty-one and left twenty-two years later having worked as a Trooper, an Investigator and a Senior Investigator, with assignments that took him from Binghamton to New York City to Buffalo. He supervised a narcotics unit. He built cases, wrote the reports, and testified about them.

He earned his law degree from SUNY Buffalo School of Law in 1997 while still working full time as an investigator, then a Master of Laws from the same school in 2003. He has been admitted to practice in New York since 2000. Between leaving the State Police and returning to private practice he spent a decade as a security director for the National Basketball Association.

Why that background matters in a shoplifting case

Retail theft cases look simple. Most of them are not. The file usually contains a loss prevention report, a value assigned to the merchandise, some surveillance footage, and a statement taken in a back room by someone who is not a police officer. Each of those is a place where the case can be weaker than it first appears.

Having spent two decades producing that kind of file, Randall reads it differently. Whether the video shows concealment or only shows movement. Whether the value the store assigned reflects the retail price or something closer to a wish. Whether the detention was reasonable in the manner and length that New York requires. What was said before anyone thought to write it down, and how it came to be said.

Credentials

• Admitted to practice in New York since 2000.
• LL.M., SUNY Buffalo School of Law, 2003. J.D., SUNY Buffalo School of Law, 1997.
• B.S. with honours, Binghamton University, 1992.
• First Vice President of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, an organization of roughly 2,100 members, and past Chair of its Motor Vehicle Committee.
• Member, National College of DUI Defense. Fellow, American Association of Premier DUI Attorneys.
• New York State Police, 1983 to 2005. Trooper, Investigator, Senior Investigator.

How he works

The Inniss Firm, PLLC is a small practice, which is the point. The person who answers the phone at midnight is the person who will stand next to you in court. There is no intake department and no case manager relaying messages. For a charge that most people find humiliating to discuss at all, that turns out to matter.

The information on this page is general information about New York law. It is not legal advice about your case. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Every case turns on its own facts.