Criminal Defense Lawyer in Virginia Beach

What is an arraignment?

The arraignment for a criminal misdemeanor or criminal felony is a mandatory court date. Please note that you are allowed to hire a private criminal defense attorney prior to your arraignment, and if you do then your lawyer will notify the court ahead of time that they are retained as your counsel. Your lawyer will also likely set up a future court date (a trial date for misdemeanors or a preliminary hearing date for felonies) for your case ahead of time as well. Note that sometimes a private defense lawyer can get you permission to avoid coming to the arraignment date, but that’s only if they get express permission from the court and each court is different with that. Assume that you 100% must be at your arraignment unless your attorney expressly tells you that you are excused from it. If you do not hire a lawyer prior to the arraignment then you 100 percent must be present for it. If you do hire a lawyer and they do not give you express permission to avoid it then you must 100% be present for it. Note, that if you miss your arraignment without express permission from your attorney then you risk the Judge issuing a warrant out for your arrest. So what happens if you do not hire a private defense lawyer prior to your arraignment? Well, you will show up in court that day and the Judge will ask what you want to do about a lawyer. More specifically, they will ask if you want to (1) represent yourself, or (2) if you want to hire a lawyer, or (3) if you want to see if you qualify for a court appointed lawyer? If you choose option one the court will make you sign a form waiving your right to a lawyer. If you choose option two, the court will usually set a new court date about 1-3 weeks out to see if you were able to hire a lawyer by then. If you were, then your lawyer would notify the court before that date. Similar to the arraignment, you are required to be present at that check attorney date unless your lawyer specifically gives you express permission to avoid it. If you still don’t have a lawyer by that date, you must go and ask the court for some more time to hire a lawyer and they may set another check attorney date for you or they may just set a trial date. If they set a trial date you either have to represent yourself on that date or you could still hire a lawyer so long as it was done prior to that trial date. Lastly, if you choose option three then the court will ask you certain financial questions to see if you qualify for a court appointed lawyer. If based on the questions the court finds that you do qualify for a court appointed lawyer then the court will appoint a lawyer. Conversely, if the court finds that you do not qualify then you are stuck with one of the other two options listed above. Please note, that if the court grants your request for a court appointed lawyer you are still always able to hire a private defense attorney later on so long as it’s done before the trial date.

Lastly, please note that arraignment is NOT a trial date. The Judge will NOT hear any evidence that day. If you start trying to tell the Judge about the facts of your specific case on the day of your arraignment they will politely redirect you back to the above three options regarding a lawyer. If you continue trying to tell the Judge about the facts of your case they will likely get less and less polite each time they have to redirect you back to those three questions regarding what you plan on doing about a lawyer.