If you are ever in a position when you must come to court for a criminal case, and you get there on-time and you do not see your lawyer, there is no reason to panic. In most courts, you must be there at a certain time, but that does not necessarily apply to your attorney. When you find yourself with a court date that is scheduled for 9:00 AM and you do not see your attorney by 9:30 AM, that is not a problem at all, but if the roles were reversed it would be. In this blog we will discuss this topic. Like all our blogs, this is intended for general educational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for the advice and counsel of a criminal defense attorney.
Attorneys do not necessarily have to be there the same time you have to
Court procedures are not something that people have to commonly deal with so there is often confusion about what the norms are when it comes to dealing with court dates. When you hire a criminal defense attorney you are hiring them to help with YOUR case. This means that you must be there for roll call so that you are not presumed to be skipping your court date. The penalties for missing your court date or being late to your court date can include getting a failure to appear and/or a warrant for your arrest being issued.
There is not such penalty for the attorney, because the court time is to make sure that you (the defendant) are present.
Why your attorney may not be there right at the scheduled time
In most cases, you are not scheduled to be the only case tried that day or even at that time. For example, if you are in District Court for a Misdemeanor case, you may have a court date a scheduled for 9:00 AM on a Wednesday, but there are also 80 other defendants with that exact court date. Obviously, these cases cannot be all heard at the same time, but the docket call is done for everyone at once. You must be there for the docket call; your attorney must be there to handle the case. Handling the case will occur later in the session, sometimes several hours later than the docket call.
A defendant in a criminal case must follow court rules and be on time
Typically, at your court date, if you are there and your attorney is not there, the prosecutor will wait. If your attorney is there and you are not there, you can get arrested. If you are supposed to be in court at 9:00 AM, coming in at 9:15 AM instead is not going to be tolerated. Figure out when your court time is well before your court date. Plan accordingly to be on-time. Make sure you allow for traffic, parking, dealing with the metal detector, and other possible delays.
