QUICK GUIDE: ARREST, JAIL, AND THE COURT PROCESS
What happens after you're arrested?
It depends on where you’re charged, what crime you are charged with, and whether it is a misdemeanor or a felony.
On a misdemeanor case, if you’re in District court, the first thing that’s going to happen is you're going to jail and will be brought up in-front of a judge to set bond this will happen relatively quickly, usually within 48 hours.
At that first appearance, not a lot is going to happen. The judge is going to make sure that you know what you are charged with. You will be given a bond amount and conditions. If you have some sort of a problem with bond, perhaps there is a condition that is unwarranted or unfair, this is the time that you can ask the judge to modify the problematic bond condition. With misdemeanors, first appearance is also the time you’re going to be arraigned. Arraignment is the formal process of asking you how you plead to the charges. After that, you’re going to have another scheduled appearance, which is called a second appearance, status or scheduling docket, or a no-go docket. This next setting is kind of an arbitrary court date to make sure your case keeps moving.
What happens after first appearance/arraignment?
Your case is going to get set over to a scheduling docket. A scheduling or a no-go docket may happen two or three times, depending on what you’re doing with your case. If you did not have a lawyer at your first appearance, you will be set over for another hearing to give you time to hire an attorney and then appear with that attorney. If you need additional time to get money to hire a lawyer, you’re going to have to keep going in and requesting another continuance to hire a lawyer. Once you have a lawyer, your case is really going to start.
The criminal defense lawyer you hire will begin working on your case immediately. That lawyer will request discovery. Discovery is essentially anything in the police and prosecutor's file, including police reports, photos, videos, witness statements, or other documents and materials which they are going to use against you in your case. You and the attorney will go over all of the discovery together. Then you’ll have a good idea whether the State can prove their case or not and you’ll start working on a defense plan. After you develop your plan for attacking the case, a lot of different things can happen.
What happens after you’ve obtained discovery?
It depends on the evidence in your case and your case strategy. You may have a motion hearing to argue specific issues before the case goes to trial. Common motions that can be filed include motions to compel the disclosure of discovery or evidence that has not been provided, motions to suppress certain evidence, motions on the admissibility of your own statements against you, and so on. During this, "meat and potatoes" part of the case, your lawyer is also strategically communicating with the prosecutor to see if they are willing to dismiss the case or work out some sort of deal to mitigate your risks and/or address your biggest concerns. All this time, you and your lawyer continue going to your scheduled court dates.
At any time during all these court dates, the case can stop being litigated because you come to a plea agreement that you’re happy with. If that happens, then you will just schedule a plea date. On a misdemeanor case, you will generally do sentencing on that same day and your case will be over. For a felony case, sentencing will have to be scheduled out several weeks after the plea hearing.
If you can’t get a plea worked out during this time or the case doesn’t get dismissed, that’s when you will end up going to trial.
What happens if your case is going to trial?
Before trial, you have a pretrial conference in which the State and your lawyer are trying to hash out all the details of what’s going to happen at trial. Any file pretrial motions will need to be heard, both sides will submit jury instructions, and the Court will take up other preliminary and logistical matters. Eventually you’ll have your actual day in court. Your trial in court is going to be either a jury trial or a bench trial.
At a jury trial, part of the first day will be the process of jury selection, also known as “Voir Dire.” This is where your attorney works to make sure you get the right jury selected. Following jury selection, the attorneys are going to do their opening statements. Then both sides get to put on their "case in chief." The State is always going to go first in presenting evidence. But during their case in chief, your lawyer get the opportunity to cross-examine all of the State's witnesses. Once the State rests their case, your lawyer will present any evidence that helps your case. At the close of all evidence, the lawyers will proceed to make closing arguments. At this point, in the case of a bench trial, a judge will render a verdict, guilty or not guilty. Sometimes, a judge may take some time (minutes or even days) to take the case under advisement, before coming back to render the verdict.
In the case of a jury trial, the the judge will read jury instructions, submit the case to the jury, and the jury will retire from the courtroom to deliberate. Then you wait until they are done. The jury deliberates until they have a unanimous verdict of guilty or not guilty on each count. Then you are called back to the courtroom for the jury to announce the verdict. In the rare event they are deadlocked and cannot reach a unanimous verdict, a mistrial is declared.
What happens after trial?
If you receive a verdict of not guilty, you are acquitted. That means your case is done and you're free to go. If you are found guilty, that means you are convicted. You will then proceed to sentencing where you will receive your punishment. Generally, if the convictions are for misdemeanors, you proceed to sentencing right away.
Do Felony cases have a different process?
The process is similar as far as felonies go, there are just a few added steps. The biggest difference is that when you are charged with a felony, you are entitled to a preliminary hearing, also called a preliminary examination, before your case can be set for trial.
A preliminary examination is essentially a mini-trial in which the State has a burden of proving probable cause. That is a very low standard of proof where the State must show there is SOME evidence that a crime was committed in their jurisdiction and that you committed it. Probable cause is an easy burden for the State to meet. These hearings are a screening tool to make sure the cases that have absolutely no business in court go away sooner rather than later.
The other big difference for felony cases comes at sentencing. If you are convicted of a felony, either by plea or at trial, your case cannot proceed to sentencing immediately. There are additional steps before you can be sentenced, so the case will be set over several weeks or even a few months. During that time, the court will prepare a presentence investigation report (PSI), which is basically a criminal history report. They also have to do an LSI-R which is a way of evaluating a person’s amenability to being on probation and what level of supervision that person should be on. Any victims of the case are also notified of the sentencing and are given a chance to appear to speak, submit a written statement, or submit a request for restitution if they feel money is owed to them.
Is Municipal Court different than State Court?
When you move into the realm of Municipal Court, the process really varies quite a bit depending on the court. For example, in most municipal courts you don't get arrested and put in jail for a municipal offense. Instead you get issued a ticket and on that ticket is a date to appear in court in the future. In the District Court, on any felony appearance and for most misdemeanors, you are required to be there. In the Municipal Court, most of the time you’re not required to be at court, as long as you have a lawyer hired that shows up to court for you. While going to court for you, your lawyer is going to be working the case and will be updating you afterwards. Your lawyer will tell you if and when you need to be in Municipal Court.
At a Municipal Court you don't have some of the same rights as you do in District Court. The biggest right you do not have is the right to a jury trial. The good thing about being in Municipal Court is that if you don’t feel you got a fair shake, at the end of the entire process, you can appeal the case. You can go to the District Court, start the case over, and you can enjoy all the rights and privileges you are afforded by the Constitution.