Your first court date will be the arraignment. The arraignment is simply the judge informing you of what offenses you are specifically charged with, and you informing the judge how you are going to plead. The court will not hear any defenses to the case at this time. We will plead you NOT GUILTY before the court. There is no need for you to be present at this proceeding.

After the arraignment we will be pursuing discovery. The discovery process is available for you to determine what evidence the prosecutor has to prove the charges. We will want to see if the prosecutor can prove all of the elements of the crimes you are charged with committing. If so, then you have to explore any and all legal claims, which may prevent the evidence from being used.

The pre-trial hearing is scheduled at your arraignment, and is intended to provide the opportunity for your lawyer and the prosecutor to discuss the case, explore plea bargaining options, and to determine whether the parties have exchanged all information required by court rules.

Continuances of the pre-trial hearing are not uncommon. Typically the hearing is continued because the defense needs to: Obtain court ordered information, such as police radio tapes, toxicology reports, documents relating to the breath test, accident reconstruction reports, missing pages from police reports, etc.;

* Complete witness interviews;
* Complete independent investigations;
* Retain expert witness;
* Locate missing witnesses;
* Obtain alcohol evaluations; and/or
* Conduct additional negotiations with the prosecutor.

If no continuance is needed and no acceptable plea bargain has been offered, your attorney will note various legal motions, schedule a hearing for them to be heard and schedule a trial date.

The motions hearing can be the most important hearing in your defense, because it is at this hearing that the judge considers legal challenges to the admissibility of the prosecutors evidence, and a ruling in your favor can result in evidence being excluded from your trial, including evidence of a blood or breath test, the results of some or all of the field sobriety tests, or adverse statements you may have made. Successful pre-trial motions often compel the prosecutor to make an advantageous plea bargain offer, or can result in the dismissal of the charge!

Most courts will schedule the motions hearing for a date well in advance of the trial. Some courts, however, schedule most motions for the morning of trial. The court will rule on most motions immediately, but it may reserve ruling until after additional legal memoranda (called briefs) are filed arguing points of law applicable to the facts of the case.

The court will schedule a readiness hearing shortly before the date your case is scheduled to go to trial. At this hearing you have five options: 1) continue the case if there is a valid reason to do so (unavailable witness, failure of one side to have provided information to the other side as required by a previous order of the court, conflict in scheduling, etc.), 2) plead guilty as charged, 3) accept an advantageous plea bargain offer, 4) file a petition for deferred prosecution, or 5) set the case for trial.

A DUI jury trial typically lasts 2 to 4 days. It may last as short as a day if there is no blood or breath test, and if there are few witnesses. Approximately 95% of DUI cases are handled without going to trial.