USA - how to "survive" criminal court

[beentheredonethatagain]

this thread is not intended to give legal advise, btdta is neither a jail house lawyer or a graduate of the bar. I am only another defendant.

this threads purpose is to share court room etiquette and terminalogy.

First thing when going to court is to show up, FTA ( failure to appear ) means a bench warrant will be issued for your arrest.

the court will cut you some slack if you miss your court date but you must get yourself to court before the cops re-arrest you.

I have missed court dates in the past and have just gone to the court window and have asked to be placed on that days docket, just get there early in the morning.

Next thing is to be dressed properly. Wear nice clothes and a jacket and tie , the court looks at the way a person is dressed as either respect or disrespect, depending of course on the clothes.

no shorts, no tank tops, no halters, no flip flop sandles.

the court reporter is only able to write down one persons answers at a time, so don't speak over the judge or anyone else.

answer with yes sir or no sir, don't just nod your head or the like, the court reporter cant write that down.

usually in the first court day the judge will read your charges and asks how you will be pleading, guilty or not.

If the charges are serious he will recommend you plead not guilty.

I suggest not to plead guilty unless you are aware of the punishment, like comming to some agreement with the D.A. ( district attorney )

also if there are more than one charge against you, and you're looking at jail time , find out if the charges are going to run concurrent or consecetive.

running wild ( consecetive ) means that when you finish doing the time on one charge then you start doing the time on the next charge.

running C C ( concurrent ) means that you will be doing the jail time for all charges at the same time, kinda like getting off on the other charges, since it is all rolled as one.

never let the court hear you say " I could do that time standing on my head" I know , they will add a nice month or two . ( a lesson that I learned )

this is all for now, any questions?

AFC ( after former conviction )

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Good thread topic. Should produce some interesting discussion
	informative
	good advice