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PreTrial Conference
In most jurisdictions, your next date in court will be the pretrial conference. At the pretrial conference, important motions can be argued that can affect your case.
- Motion to Suppress
A Motion to Suppress is filed when your attorney believes that there are grounds to suppress either physical evidence taken from you or statements made by you.
- Motion to Dismiss
A Motion to Dismiss will be filed by your attorney if they believe there was insufficient evidence at the preliminary hearing from which the judge could make a finding of probable cause.
- Motion to Release Information
In certain types of felony cases, most notably sex abuse and child molestation cases, the victims psychological OR medical records may be relevant. A motion will be filed by your attorney to disclose that information. It is not automatically disclosed because of its privileged nature.
- Motion to Sever
In various circumstances, your attorney may wish to have your case separated from that of a co-defendant or have one or more of your charges tried separately from the others.
At this conference, your attorney will have the opportunity to continue discussions with the prosecutor in an attempt to reach a plea bargain, if that is what you and the attorney are seeking. Possible favorable dispositions may include a plea bargain that would strike a prior conviction or a plea bargain that would reduce the charge. Practically speaking, this means that your attorney can request that the offense be reduced to a misdemeanor either during your probationary period or at the end of your probationary period.
Pretrial hearings are scheduled days and weeks before the commencement of trial. It is used by the lawyers and trial judge to review all outstanding trial issues.
Typically evidence and witness lists are exchanged. Motions are made and outstanding procedural issues are resolved.
Pretrial conferences are also used to negotiate a plea bargain. The prosecutor might give the defense lawyer a better offer if his client is willing to plea now. The defense lawyer may present counter-offers for the prosecution to consider. All the pretrial issues that need to be resolved before trial settled here.
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