Bruce Maida v. Michael Kuskin (073429)

Judge CUFF (temporarily assigned)

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this appeal we address the municipal court practice known as the “civil reservation.” A civil reservation permits the municipal court judge, at the request of a defendant, to order that a guilty plea shall not be evidential in any related civil proceeding.

Here, defendant pled guilty to failing to report an accident. The transcript of the municipal court session contains no mention of a civil reservation. Following the municipal court session, defendant’s attorney wrote a letter to the municipal court judge “to confirm that…