If you have been charged with a crime in South Carolina circuit court, you may be told you have two required court dates before your case moves forward. These two dates, often called the initial appearance and the second appearance or bond returnable date, can be confusing since they do not work the way court appearances are portrayed on television. The following questions address what to expect at each stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Happens After an Initial Appearance?
When you have a bond hearing, and this is if you’re charged in circuit court and not in magistrate’s court, the judge will tell you certain things and they’ll say you have two court appearances. The first one they call initial appearance. The second one, sometimes they can’t figure out what they want to call it, they call it bond returnable or second appearance. The first one’s about 45 days after you get out of jail.
The second one is about, say, two months after that, something like that. Then you’re required to go to that. Again, though, there’s no judge there. You just have to go to the courthouse with your lawyer. They call your name and you’re excused.
Why Do You Have Two Court Dates?
No, it doesn’t seem right, and I’ve been dealing with it for decades and it still doesn’t seem right. When people get out of jail, the judge says, “You got two court dates. You can’t miss them. If you miss them, they’ll get a warrant.”
They’re very nervous about it, and we ask these questions constantly, like, “What’s going to happen?” I said, “Well, nothing’s going to happen. You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to do anything. We’ll be there with you. Basically, the prosecutor’s going to just check a thing that says that you’re there and maybe look at you, and then you’re excused and you go home.”
What Happens at a Second Appearance?
Yeah, it seems strange if you watch Law and Order, or you watch any show, or if you actually go to court in another jurisdiction. Typically what happens is you go in there, you stand up in front of the judge. It’s called an arraignment, where they make sure that you have a lawyer, that you know what you’re charged with, and you enter a plea, and that’s what people are expecting. And that would make sense. But we don’t really have a court system.
So you just go there with your lawyer. Your lawyer says, “Yeah, he’s here. She’s here. Maybe they even traveled a great distance to be there.” And then the prosecutor says, “Okay, well, they’re excused.” And then you go back home.
With nearly 30 years of experience and a background as a former prosecutor, Greg McCollum understands the South Carolina court process from both sides of the courtroom. Facing an initial appearance or second appearance can feel confusing, and having someone familiar with how local circuit courts handle these steps may help ease that uncertainty.
If you have questions about Myrtle Beach criminal court appearances, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.
