First court date

What you can expect to have happen at your first court date will actually be determined by the decisions you make now. What does that mean? Simply put, it means that if you hire a lawyer then 1 thing will happen and if you don't something else will happen. Before we talk about what happens at the first court date lets cover some basics of the arraignment.

Arraignment

Arraignment is a common law term for the formal reading of a criminal complaint, in the presence of the defendant (Felony), to inform him or her of the charges against them. In response to arraignment, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Acceptable pleas vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but they generally the plea entered is "not guilty." This process is One of your "constitutional" "due process" rights whereby your are told exactly what you're being accused of. If you haven't already hired an attorney to defend you, the judge will ask you if you want one. If you want one and you can't afford to pay for one, the judge will appoint an attorney to represent you for free - that's another one of your constitutional rights.

The actual procedure used to accomplish this will vary depending on the decisions you make now, so here is the basic difference:

Arraignment - no retained counsel

You must be present in court at 0730 in the morning on the date assigned. If you are not then a warrant will be issued for your immediate arrest. "work" or "school" are not acceptable excuses for missing any court date. When you go the Public Defender will assist you in determine how you might like to proceed either by getting more time or entering a guilty plea. Because the public defender will have so many cases to handle during the court session he or she will have very little time to review your police report and their advice will be based on a quick "once over" of the police report.

Also, please understand that if you do not hire a lawyer and/or schedule hearing with the DMV within the first ten days of your arrest you will have waived your right to challenge the DMV and, therefore, your license will be suspended.

If you choose not to proceed ahead by asking for more time to hire your own lawyer or the Judge won't assign you a public defender because you make too much money or own your own house then he or she may exercise their discretion and impose conditions of release including posting bail, "abiding the law," or other requirements like attending AA meetings. These conditions of release will remain in place until the case is resolved.

Arraignment - retained counsel

The Attorney will attend court for you or the office will enter a "not guilty" plea via fax machine which is authorized in San Diego county. Which ever way the attorney accomplishes this goal he or she will come away from the court date with a "readiness conference" date which is usually about 30 days later. Something else you should understand is that if your lawyer does not actually go into court for the arraignment then he or she will not have spoken to the District Attorney or the Judge and, therefore, will not have any information for you about your case other than what the next court date is.

Please note that this procedure of not going into court can be an advantage, but also understand that this is a general policy and a specific judge does have the authority to require your presence in court and that, in some cases, actually going into court on the first date might be preferable depending on the facts of your case. For information about your case you should speak to a lawyer to determine which procedure might be best for you. As a result you may not have to be present in court for the First court date.

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