Casinos and Used Car Sales: The Criminal Justice System

Court Settings, Part 8 of 12

The rule that clients must appear in person during routine dockets was in place long before I got here and will be here long after I am gone. The only reason I can think of why the Courts require Clients to appear is to have them watch the Roulette wheel and eventually accept a plea offer. That’s not an abusive rule, as it sounds.

There is logic to having the person with the most risk be present during all proceedings. All the reasons would easily be the subject of an entire writing. For now, understand that your lawyer does not control the courts’ calendar. But, an able lawyer can often use the Courts’ calendars to your advantage.

Sometimes, a client will ask if the court could just schedule one court date so the case could be resolved once and for all. My easy and obvious response to the client is: why would you want all four prosecutors and Judge putting all their focus and efforts on his case when normally they have between 20-50 cases to prepare and attempt to negotiate a resolution.

As the accused, don’t ignore that a general appearance docket is an opportunity to physically make a favorable presence and image to the court by comparison to the other accused in the Court. Not that the Judges and Prosecutors look for it and consider it often. But why waste the opportunity when, more than half of the accused will appear wearing jeans and a t-shirt.