What happens to you and your case after you're arrested?

In this post I provide a broad overview of what happens to a person and their case all the way from arrest to trial. This overview includes a brief description of interrogation, booking, bond, first appearance, preliminary hearing, pending charges, Accusation/Indictment, and going to court.

Interrogation

Whether immediately after arrest or at some point at the jail, law enforcement may want to ask you more questions about your case. However, after you are under arrest (i.e. in custody), law enforcement must advise you of your Miranda Rights before questioning you. These rights include:

1. You have the right to remain silent.

2. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.

3. You have the right to an attorney and to have one present with you during questioning.

4. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided to you.

They may not ask if you waive these rights and instead may just ask if you understand them and jump right into questioning. At that point, you should immediately ask for an attorney. Do not waive these rights and answer their questions. If they have already arrested you, they almost certainly are not prepared to ask a judge to withdraw their warrants and let you go based on anything you say. Also, if you speak with law enforcement, even innocent sounding information you provide can be used to help them make their case against you by corroborating certain details. At the end of the day, if you have some important information to provide about your case, wait to speak with an attorney first. You can always choose to provide the information at a later time if that is the best strategy.

Booking

After you are arrested, you will be brought to the jail and placed in a holding cell awaiting booking. (If appropriate you'll be brought to a hospital and medically cleared first.) Depending on the number of people waiting to be booked, you could be waiting 12 or more hours to be processed. After being processed you will be placed into a jail cell unless you already had a bond set and are ready to post it at the conclusion of booking.

Bond

If you are charged with a misdemeanor, you are entitled to a bond (O.C.G.A. § 17-6-1(b)(1)), and the jail will have a predetermined bond schedule from where your bond amount is set without a judge. If you are charged with a felony offense, the nature of the charge affects whether you can or will get a bond at first appearance or whether you need to be seen before a judge of superior court for bond consideration. Unless the judge requires otherwise, you may have the options to post a cash bond, property bond, or professional bond from a bonding company.

First Appearance

At a first appearance hearing (normally before a magistrate judge), you are informed of the charges and your rights, and the judge considers whether to grant you a bond. You have the right to have an attorney present for the hearing.

The hearing must be held within 48 hours of a warrantless arrest and within 72 hours of an arrest based upon a warrant signed in advance by a judge. Uniform Superior Court Rule 26.1; O.C.G.A. § 17-4-26. Here in Coweta County first appearance tends to happen once a day. That means if booking takes a long time, you may have to wait until the next day to be seen by a judge at first appearance.

Preliminary Hearing

If your case has not yet been indicted, and you are stuck in jail because you were denied a bond or could not afford your bond, you are entitled to have a preliminary hearing (sometimes called a commitment hearing or probable cause hearing). The purpose of this hearing is for the judge to determine whether there is probable cause to support the charges against you that you are being held in jail on. O.C.G.A. § 17-7-23(a). The hearing also provides another opportunity for your bond and bond amounts to be reconsidered. Whether to have a full preliminary hearing over probable cause or just a bond-only hearing is a strategic decision to be made with the help of an attorney.

Pending Charges

After you have been arrested, law enforcement will turn in their case file to the prosecutor's office for the prosecutor's review. The prosecutor will then look at all the evidence and research the law and determine whether and how to charge you. They may keep the same charges the officer arrested you for, or they could increase, decrease, or dismiss them. It all depends on the evidence in the case. It is often during this stage that your attorney can present new information to the prosecutor which may help the prosecutor see the case should be handled differently.

Depending on the backlog and whether you are charged with a misdemeanor or felony, a case might be sitting in pending charges status for a matter of months or possibly up to years. The legal time limitation for the prosecutor to charge you is the statute of limitations. For misdemeanors that is two years, and for most felonies it is four years. O.C.G.A. § 17-3-1. Some felonies, like murder, have no statute of limitations and can be prosecuted at any time.

Accusation / Indictment

By law some charges have to be accused and others have to be presented to a Grand Jury to be indicted. O.C.G.A. § 17-7-70.1. Accusations and Indictments are documents that look very similar as both list Counts with charges and their descriptions. However, each has a different procedure to bring them.

An Accusation is the easiest way for a prosecutor to bring formal charges when allowed under O.C.G.A. § 17-7-70.1. An Accusation only needs to be signed by the prosecutor and filed to make it official.

However, an Indictment must be presented to a Grand Jury for their review, and a majority (at least 12 of the up to 23 Grand Jurors) must agree there is probable cause to true bill (indict) the case. The Grand Jury foreperson is the one who signs the Indictment after a vote, not the prosecutor. Because probable cause is such a low standard, and because only the prosecutor and law enforcement are present to present the facts of the case to the jurors (without any rules of evidence), I would estimate that 99+% of cases presented to a Grand Jury are indicted. It should be noted that just because a Grand Jury indicts someone, that does not mean they believe someone is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Going to Court

Once your case is finally accused or indicted, it will be assigned a case number for the court. This is referred to as your case has been docketed.

Once your case is docketed you will receive a first court date, called Arraignment. At Arraignment the judge will want to make sure you have an attorney or a plan to get one. Your case may be continued to a second Arraignment if you need more time to get an attorney. At Arraignment you have the right to have your charges read aloud to you, and you will be asked to plead guilty or not guilty. O.C.G.A. § 17-7-93. In most cases, no one wants all their charges read aloud, and so their attorney will simply waive formal arraignment, enter a plea of not guilty, and ask for the next court date.

After arraignment, if your attorney has any motions filed that need hearings, the case can be placed on a motions calendar for that purpose. The judge may also place your case on both a pretrial calendar and a trial calendar.

When you appear for your pretrial calendar, you have the opportunity to plead guilty and resolve your case unless you want to take your case to trial. Whether to seek a negotiated resolution or take your case to trial is a very serious and often difficult choice that should only be made with the advice of experienced counsel. If your case is not resolved on this date, it goes to the trial calendar.

Trial calendars are often one or two weeks long. Here in Coweta Superior Court, more than one judge is usually available on trial weeks to try cases to allow multiple cases to go to trial. During the trial week(s) the judge will begin calling cases to trial. If your case is reached, you will get to have your trial. If your case is not reached for trial, it will get continued to another trial calendar (usually a month later).

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If you need help with a felony or misdemeanor criminal case in Newnan or Coweta County (or a felony case in surrounding counties), call Robert at (678) 345-8855 or send a message for a free consultation.