When it comes to court dates and what to expect with these, depending on your attorney and the courts, you may have several hearings where you just show up, and your attorney will talk behind closed doors and then send you home. Sometimes hearings are rescheduled for several reasons. In my situation, each time there were 1 or 2 hearings I didn’t even have to show up, and several others where I showed up and then was sent home. Your attorney will keep pushing your case back working to try and get the DA to make a better plea offer. Eventually, you will go before the judge and either accept a plea offer or plead not guilty. The DA usually offers pleas that are hard to turn down if you don’t have a great case to fight. They want the conviction but also prefer not to go to trial. From arrest to standing in front of the judge, my situation was DWI 1 – 9 months, DWI 2 – 14 months, DWI 3 – 2 years (due to covid).
Before you go before the judge, your attorney will usually have a good idea if he has a case to fight or not. They should be upfront and honest with you in this situation. Trial will cost more money and if found guilty, the punishment is much more harsh. In the case of my 3rd DWI, had I gone to trial and lost, the minimum jail time a jury could give me is 2 years. With a plea offer, I wound up with 15 days of jail that I served on weekends. My point is, if you plan to go to trial make 100% sure you have a solid case. My situation had unique circumstances that would have been an easy dismissal the year prior, but my attorney discovered a case that made my circumstance un-winable. The plea was a smarter move for me.
While the judge almost always goes with what the DA suggests, they have the ultimate power to change things while you are standing in front of them, so nothing is final until the judge says what your punishment is.
Once you are finished with the court if you are given a suspended jail sentence with probation, it’s time to meet your new probation officer you will meet monthly. You can read all about probation here.