How Long Between Pretrial And Trial (And Why)?

Exact Answer: 1 To 2 Months

Law and order will always have to be on the straight line. Without the rules, the world will turn upside down, and the entire world will be an absolute mess. Planet Earth will become a place where nobody can live if there are no rules and everybody behaves as they want to. After a person commits a crime, there are many things they go through, based on the severity of their crime. Some things change, but almost all the procedures and rules are the same. There are trials, pretrials, and many other things.

There are different variety of procedures that are followed in the court of law, and there is a lot to know about trials, and the one that precedes the actual trial, the pre-trial. Before going to a trial, the lawyers and defendants have to go through a pre-trial. When someone applies for a court cause, it will take a long time for the prosecutors to develop the cases and the date must be set amidst many other trials. The court has many trials to be handled on a single day and they have to get through it all.

There is a lot to learn about trials, pre-trials, and how long a defendant and the processor should wait after the pre-trial to set a date for the trial.

How Long Between Pretrial And Trial?

Type of defendant	Time
A felony dependant must be brought to trial within	60 days
A misdemeanor defendant must be brought to trial within	30 days
When a misdemeanor defendant is not in custody, the wait time will be extended up to	45 days

Once the prosecutor has gone through everything necessary and collected sufficient evidence against the defendant, they will have to submit a request to the judge who handles the pre-trials. After the prosecutor applies for a pre-trial, the warrant of arrest or a summons to appear will be issued.

Also Read: How Long Can Postpartum Depression Last (And Why)?

This summons will be issued only if there is enough proper evidence and reasonable ground to believe that the person has committed the crime they are accused of. The judges should also look into the case if it comes under their jurisdiction.

When the defendant has been arrested for a felony, the court must bring the defendant to trial within 60 days i.e. 2 months after the arraignment. Although, a defendant who is arrested for a misdemeanor must be brought to trial before the end of the 30th day.

When the defendants are not in custody, they will be given a waiting time of another 45 days, but this applies only to the misdemeanor defendants, and not the felony defendants.

Readers who read this also read:

Why Is The Time Between A PreTrial And A Trial That Long?

After a summon is issued, a pre-trial happens and this is where the judges deliberate and finally decide whether the amount of evidence present is enough to set up and start an actual trial. Certainly, there should be enough evidence against the defendant so that it could stand up in the court and prove the point during the actual trial.

After the pre-trial happens, there will also be a hearing, where the judge will ensure the identity of the suspect is authentic and read out the charges of the convicted. The charges are read out loud, to make the convicted understand the whole thing, and this way, the judge also understands what exactly is going on.

Also Read: How Long Do Internet Providers Keep History (And Why)?

After that, in the second hearing, both the prosecutor and the defendant will have an opportunity there to present both their cases. When there is enough is evidence against the accused and it proves that they committed the crime, the trial date will be finalized.

Conclusion

When there isn’t enough proper evidence, the case will be either closed or the judge will ask the prosecution to provide more evidence. All these decisions will be authorized by the judge.

A pre-trial can last for about hours and the reason why the date between the pre-trial and the actual trial is very less is that, within this duration, a lot can happen and even evidence can change. The wait between the pre-trial and the trial depends on various factors, like the depth of the case, and what is the case is about, the duration between the trial and the arrest, the sentencing, and much more.

Civil cases and criminal cases take longer, and some cases end sooner.

References

One request?

I’ve put so much effort writing this blog post to provide value to you. It’ll be very helpful for me, if you consider sharing it on social media or with your friends/family. SHARING IS ♥️