Facing serious criminal charges can raise questions about what happens after an arrest and how many times you have to go to court. These three answers from Greg McCollum cover the trial process, how the process plays out if you are charged with a crime while on vacation, and what happens if you get a failure to appear.
Frequently Asked Questions
I’m facing serious criminal charges. What does the trial process look like?
After you’re released on bond, you have an initial appearance where you have to appear in court essentially to show that you have a lawyer. If the firm represents you, the firm can get you excused from that. You have a second appearance which is probably about 90 days after your arrest that you have to go to.
That’s really more of just a roll-call gathering; people think it’s court, but it isn’t. It’s an opportunity to go meet with the DA, look at the discovery on your case, and sometimes get a plea offer.
Beyond that, there’s just negotiations, with not necessarily any court appearances. That’s where in South Carolina’s system it’s a little bit unusual, because the prosecutor can dismiss the case at that point, call you back in, or call you in to negotiate.
Sometimes they bring people in for an arraignment, where they basically put the person in front of the court and say this person has a plea offer, we think it’s fair, the person is refusing to accept the plea, and therefore we’re going to give them this warning: if they don’t take the plea offer issued by the DA, they’ll be set for trial. It’s kind of supposed to be a point of no return.
In terms of appearances, sometimes people have to appear just once or twice, while other times people have to appear multiple times over the course of months, and sometimes years.
I’m on vacation and I’m being charged with a crime. How will the process play out?
If it’s a serious felony-type crime, essentially what happens is upon arrest and bond hearing, you’re given two court dates to come back for court, and those are 45 days from arrest to about 90 days after arrest. Also, if you request a preliminary hearing, which the firm always advises you to do, then that falls in between there as well.
Usually, in those instances, the firm can get you excused from court for two of those and you have to come to the later one. That’s a requirement. After that, the court structure is less settled in terms of court appearances.
You may have to come back six months after that, or you may have to come back a few months after that, and the number of court appearances depends upon your case. It depends on how you’re pleading, whether your case is being set for trial or dismissed, and there are a lot of other factors that go into determining how often you have to come back.
Ultimately, if your case goes to trial, then obviously you have to come back for that. Most felony jury trials last about three days, and so that’s a big consideration for people in terms of the scheduling and getting on with their life after they’ve been accused of a crime.
What happens if you get a failure to appear?
A failure to appear in court, also known as a bench warrant, is something where someone misses a court appearance, sometimes it’s unintentional, and then the court issues a new warrant for that person’s arrest.
So if you have a failure to appear, you need to know that there’s an active warrant for your arrest. If you’re in-state and you’re located, you’ll be arrested and taken into custody. If you’re out of state, you’ll be arrested and taken into custody as well. This could cause some major problems because you cannot post bond with a failure to appear or a bench warrant.
You’re not entitled to bond. So you have to go to court and ask the judge, the DA, or the prosecutor to agree to release you. This creates a lot of problems; sometimes people are held in jail literally for weeks and months before they’re able to get out.
That doesn’t mean the problem cannot be dealt with. The firm frequently is able to get those failure-to-appear warrants lifted by coming back into compliance with the court. So if you have a failure-to-appear warrant, you definitely need to contact a lawyer.
You can contact the Complete Legal Defense Team, and the firm will show you how it can handle that, many times without you even being taken into custody.
If you are facing a serious criminal charge in South Carolina, the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team can help you understand what comes next. Greg McCollum has 30 years of experience and is a former prosecutor, and that background is part of what he brings to your defense.
If you have questions about serious criminal charges, court dates, or a failure to appear, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.