The Court Process

The first step is called an arraignment. A case will appear on the "regular" docket. This is the docket to which all new cases are assigned. A case will likely be maintained on the regular docket for the first few court appearances. In certain situations, your case can be resolved while on this docket. Some courts allow the attorney to appear on your behalf, while others require the appearance of the client as well. Failure to be in court can result in forfeiture of your bond and a warrant being issued for you for the crime of Failure to Appear. Over the next few court appearances, the prosecution and your defense lawyer discuss the merits of your defenses. The discussions of the prosecution and defense are conducted in private. One of the main reasons for this practice is that any information which is discussed in private cannot be used in the prosecution of the case. If the discussions were conducted in open court, there would be witnesses who could be called to testify about the case. It serves your benefit to allow this to happen.

If the discussions with the prosecutor and your attorney do not yield a satisfactory disposition, the matter will be set down for a judicial pretrial. Most courts have a judge who controls the criminal docket. This judge is called the "presiding judge." This judge will sit as the final arbiter of the matter before it is determined that the case cannot be resolved without a trial. After a judicial pretrial, the Court will make an offer to resolve the case after hearing from the prosecution and the defense lawyer. The sides often propose different disposition possibilities and the judge listens to both sides to see what is a reasonable disposition given the legal and factual claims both sides make.

If you, your attorney and the State agree on a disposition of the case you may be required to do a number of different things. Some of these things involve paying a fine, completing alcohol counseling or complying with probation. If you plead guilty to a crime (something which is punishable by some period of jail time) the judge must ask you a series of questions to determine if you are pleading to the information (the charges) knowingly and voluntarily. These questions ask you to waive your right to have a trial, act as a witness on your own behalf, call witnesses or defend against witnesses against you and remain silent. The judge must also agree to give you the disposition which you agreed to take. If the judge does not approve, the judge must allow you to withdraw your plea.

There are 3 ways to plead or be found guilty. The first way is a "straight" guilty plea. A straight plea means you agree with the allegations, and that the state is saying you committed a crime and you are agreeing you are guilty. The second way you can plead guilty is under the Alford Doctrine. The Alford Doctrine means that you do not agree with some, or all of the facts that the state claims happened, however, in light of what you know the state has to prove, you wish to plead guilty and accept a definite disposition rather than risk going to trial and losing, and being sentenced to a greater penalty. The final way to plead guilty is to plead "nolo contendere." "Nolo contendere" is latin for "No Contest." This means that you are not contesting the charges. You are not putting up any defenses to the charge. The judge, after hearing the charges, will find you guilty, and sentence you. A "nolo contendere" plea is often used in situations where you may be sued by another person, perhaps a person with whom you were involved with in an accident. This is used because your "nolo contendere" plea cannot be used against you in a civil case like a guilty plea could.

If the case cannot be resolved without a trial, both attorneys are then given an opportunity to file motions. Motions, simply put, are "requests" that we make of the court to grant us some type of "relief". This "relief" is usually asking that some part of the State's evidence be excluded from trial when the case goes to court. We may seek to exclude a breath or blood test result, field evaluations or a custodial statement made by you after your detention, but before any Miranda advisements were given to you (e.g., "You have the right to an attorney; you have the right to remain silent¼, etc".

In addition, your attorney will make a motion for the prosecutor to send him or her the "discovery" in your case. Discovery is a generic term that relates to production of evidence that the state intends to present against you in court. An example of "discovery" is a list of the State's witnesses against you, plus information on how to locate them. Obtaining discovery allows us to be as fully prepared as possible when we enter court so that there will be no surprises. One of the key aspects of discovery may be a videotape of your arrest, either at the scene, in the station or both. Most prosecutors offices in Connecticut follow an "open file" policy from the beginning of the case. They allow your attorney to view the police report (some will allow a copy, while others only allow notes to be taken)

Next, your attorney will be given oral argument of these motions. This is a very important step as it sometimes allows your attorney to attack various aspects of the State's case prior to trial. The elimination of harmful evidence is the primary purpose and goal of "motions". There will be no jury involved at a motions hearing. Present at a typical motions hearing will be the judge, your attorney, the prosecutor, the State's witness (the arresting officer) and yourself. Some cases require additional witnesses. The judge will hear motions and argument from both sides, then grant or deny the motions. Most judges refuse to hear motions until the day of trial. This practice is not as desirable for you for many reasons, the most important of which are (a) that it limits your attorney's time to obtain a transcript of important testimony of the State's witnesses (commonly used for "impeachment"), and (b) your attorney will have to prepare for both motions and trial, thereby costing you the entire remainder of you fees in such cases.

Next comes the trial. This may be a jury trial (a 6-person jury is used in misdemeanor cases) or a bench trial (heard only by the judge).

If the case is set down for a trial, there will be a day when you and your attorney will be summoned to begin "jury selection" or "voir dire." In Connecticut, our Constitution allows for your defense attorney to question each independent potential juror about their knowledge of the case, the witnesses and there general outlook on life. During this phase, your attorney tries to find the best possible candidates to sit on a jury and side with you. While doing the, the state attorney is looking to find the best possible jurors who will convict you. Depending on the exact charges against you, your lawyer and the state will each have a number of "challenges." These challenges allow them to get rid of a potential juror without having a reason. If your attorney or the State attorney tries to exclude a particular gender or race, however, they can be stopped by the judge if it is pointed out by the other side.

Unlike on TV and in the movies, in Connecticut, we do not have long opening statements. In fact, unless there are unusual circumstances and a judge has approved them, there will be no opening statement in your case. The prosecutor will call the first witness for the prosecution, which is usually the police officer.

After the state has asked questions of the first witness, your defense lawyer will be allowed to "cross examine" the witness. This continues until the state has no more witnesses to call.

According to the federal and state constitution, the defense has no burden to put on any evidence. If they choose not to do so, the sides would then make their closing arguments.

Most of the time, however, the defense will call witnesses of their own. Then, the defense attorney will ask questions, and the prosecution will have a chance to cross examine them on the case.

After the defense is done, the State then has a chance to bring in witnesses if they can rebut the evidence of the defense witnesses. If they do not call any, the case proceeds with closing arguments.

During closing arguments, both sides try to convince the jury to either find you guilty or not guilty (depending on the attorney)

After closing arguments, the Judge will instruct the jury on the law of the case, and how it is to be applied.

Once that is done, the jury is sent to the jury room to deliberate. They elect a foreperson, and discuss the case until the have reached a unanimous verdict. This means they all must agree that the defendant is either guilty or not guilty.

Once they have that verdict, they send a note to the judge and tell the court that they are ready to tell the world their verdict.

If they cannot agree, the judge may tell them to listen to one another again, and send them back for more deliberations. If they decide they will never agree, the judge declares a mistrial.

The judge then brings the jury into the courtroom and the clerk of the court asks the foreperson what the verdict is.

If the jury find you "not guilty" then the case is over. If the jury finds that you are guilty, the case will then be set down for sentencing.

When you appear for sentencing, the judge may sentence you to all of the maximum period of jail time you were facing on the charges of which you were convicted. Oftentimes, prior to sentencing, the judge will order the Probation department to conduct a presentence investigation and report. This report is create by probation officers to give the judge a better understanding of whom you are as a person. The probation department may suggest a certain way for the judge to structure the sentence or certain things to include (community service, counseling) but the judge is the final person who determines what a sentence will be.

If you are convicted, you are permitted to appeal you decision. You must hire a lawyer to represent you for the appeal, which is normally a separate fee from you trial fee for your trial lawyer. Many times, people hire the trial lawyer for the appeal because he or she may already have a lot of research on the exact issues which can be appealed. The appeal only deals with legal issues, not factual issues, so it is not a retrial. Instead, your lawyer will review the transcript and look to find issues in which the improper evidence was allowed to be presented to the jury, or where the judge incorrectly instructed the jury on the law. The appeal is filed within a few months and then the State is given time to file a brief in opposition. Then, the case is argued to a panel of 3 judges in Hartford. There are no witnesses presented at the argument. There is also a time limit for both sides.

After the case is argued, the judges release a written decision. The decision either affirms the guilty finding or reverses the case to start again. In rare circumstances, the reversal will make the case be totally complete. If the case is affirmed, your lawyer may appeal for review by the Supreme Court.