What happens in court an how long will my case take?

People are often surprised that a criminal matter isn’t concluded on the first court date. The client is arrested, or sometimes given a citation with a court date. He/she takes a day off from work, sometimes asks a good friend or family member to come along for moral support to go to court. When the person charged gets to court, he/she finds that there is no trial, no accuser or police officer present, sometimes not even a prosecutor, just a judge and a courtroom full of people who were also given the same court date. When his/her name is called, the judge doesn’t want to hear what happened, but only wants to know if they are getting an attorney or if they are pleading guilty.

People are often confused by what happens in court. Why do I have to go back more than once? Is my lawyer even doing anything? What about my speedy trial? Sometimes, I have found that a criminal defendant does not even know they have pled guilty until after they have already done so, and then come to see a lawyer! A criminal case is never over on the first court date unless the defendant pleads guilty (only on a misdemeanor—must have a lawyer for felonies), or if the DA does not file charges at all.

For a misdemeanor (such as most DUIs, petty thefts, simple assaults, domestic violence, certain Vehicle Code violations, some minor drug charges), as well as for many felonies, the first appearance is only for the purpose of advising a defendant of the charges, determining if they are getting an attorney, issues regarding raising or reducing bail, and setting another court date. For misdemeanors only, the judge may allow the defendant to enter a plea himself. At the next court appearance, the judge generally expects to see an attorney. Since that date is sometimes the first chance the attorney has to look at the police report (unless an attorney is hired right away), even at the second court appearance, a new court date is usually set. In a misdemeanor case, this is called a “pretrial conference”. This is a discussion between the prosecutor, your attorney and sometimes the judge. At this hearing, the defense attorney will point out weaknesses in the prosecutor’s case, or defenses that the DA was unaware of when he filed the case, as well as the good character of the defendant. This may take just one court date, or there may multiple “pretrials” if an attorney is attempting to convince the particular prosecutor, or expects a different more lenient prosecutor or judge will be there at the next court date. If the matter settles to the client’s satisfaction, the case will be concluded. If the matter is not going to settle, then it is set for jury trial. Often there are more cases on the misdemeanor jury trial calendar that the court can handle, and your case may be set for trial dates a few times before you finally have a jury trial. All this can take many months.  Misdemeanor trials usually take time for the attorney to prepare and anywhere from 2-5 days in front of a jury, depending on how complicated the case is.

The biggest exception to the apparent slow movement of a case through the courts is when the defendant is in custody, when bail motions must be made right away to get him/her reduced bail, or in cases where it makes sense to force the prosecutor to put his case on right away due to tactical decisions apparent to the attorney immediately on learning about the case. In these cases, an attorney needs to quickly get ready for contested bail hearings and the preliminary hearing. In these cases, the attorney will demand your right to a speedy trial and the matter will take only a few weeks to reach the preliminary hearing stage, and then an additional 70 days or so to get to trial on a felony(60 days from second arraignment).

For most felonies, the case does not even “get started” until there is an attorney in place, except in the unusual case where a defendant may be taken by surprise after bailing out of jail by again having bail raised at the arraignment. This is only likely to happen if the case is “undercharged” by the original DA on a very serious matter, and then the complaint is amended by a new prosecutor assessing the file after the original court date. This can also happen when the judge presiding on the arraignment calendar disagrees with the magistrate who reviewed the case while the defendant was in jail and set the original bail. In any serious felony, especially where three strikes, sexual offenses, or multiple crimes are alleged, it is ESSENTIAL to bring an attorney in ASAP to be prepared for these possibilities and to argue against the bail changes proposed in court.

The procedure for felony court appearances is first the arraignment to advise of the charges and the need for an attorney, followed by a second appearance a few weeks later for the attorney to identify him/herself as responsible for the case. At the second appearance, the attorney should receive a copy of the file. Before that date, the reports can only be viewed in the clerk’s office or on the Judge’s bench. After receiving the reports, the attorney must first decide if there are additional missing reports or taped interview that are missing, obtain them from the DA or the police, and review them with the client. At this point, in felony matters and many misdemeanors, investigation or consultation with expert witnesses is begun so that the attorney can be prepared to either get the charges reduced or dropped in consultation with the prosecutor, or to prepare for the preliminary hearing.

The preliminary hearing is a mini-trial where the prosecution puts on just a few witnesses and the defense has the chance to cross-examine. After the hearing, the judge decides if there is any evidence to take the case to trial. If the judge so decides, a new arraignment date is set. At that time, the defense attorney may set legal motions to suppress evidence or to call defects in evidence or pleading to the next court’s attention. These motions may take months or weeks to prepare, depending on the volume of material and legal issue involved. There may be a felony pretrial conference if it appears the case would benefit from a discussion or attempt to settle. After that the matter is on the trial calendar. Again, there are many more trials set than courtrooms available, so the case may be on calendar for several weeks. Depending on how complicated the matter and what is at stake in the punishment, a felony can be concluded in a few months if it is straightforward, or sometimes as much as a year or more if investigation and preparation is difficult and the case proceeds all the way to trial

Felony trials usually take a minimum of 5 days all the way up to several months in front of a jury before the matter is concluded.

Because of the confusing nature or court to the average citizen, and serious consequences of being misinformed, you should always at least discuss your matter with an attorney if you are charged with a criminal matter. I offer brief consultations for the purpose of determining what lies ahead for you in your case and can assess the seriousness of the matter quickly.