Georgia Criminal Defense

I’ve been representing people in serious criminal cases in Georgia for well over 20 years now, and when someone comes to us and they’ve just been charged with a crime, especially if it’s their first offense, they wanna know what to expect. How do I get out of jail? What’s gonna happen when I go to court? What kinda time am I facing for this offense? So I thought it might be helpful to walk through the basic steps, so that you know what to expect if you’ve been charged with a crime in Georgia.

Now, the first issue, the first consideration for almost everyone is, how do I get a bond? How do I get out of jail? Just because I’ve been charged doesn’t mean I did anything wrong and I need to go back home, take care of the kids, go to work, whatever. I need to get a bond and be released so I’m not sitting in jail waiting for my court day. Well, fortunately, in most cases in Georgia, it’s not that hard to get a bond. If it’s a low-level offense, say a DUI, a misdemeanor possession of marijuana, there’s gonna be a schedule of bail amounts there at the jail. So the person’s arrested by the police, they’re taken to jail, they’re told what the bond amount is. They can get it posted and then they can be released, usually within the same day.

Now for some more serious offenses, felony offenses, you may have to see a judge before you can go home. And in most counties around Georgia, that judge will actually come to the jail. Many jails have court rooms there at the jail where they bring in folks who’ve just been arrested to see a judge, the judge will tell them what they’re charged with, what their rights are, and then hopefully, set a bond. And again, once that bond is posted, once the money is paid to either a bonding company or to the jail, the sheriff’s office, then the person can be released.

Many times that bond will be a property bond, where someone’s simply putting up their property guaranteeing that the person will come back to court. But there are a few exceptions to that rule. There are some very serious crimes in Georgia where that magistrate judge, the judge, the person sees the first time at the jail doesn’t have the jurisdiction to set a bond, just can’t do it even if he or she wanted to. And those crimes include things like murder, kidnapping, aggravated child molestation, drug trafficking, very serious offenses, and under Georgia law, the only way a person can get a bond in one of those cases, is to go in front of a superior court judge. That’s a higher level court. And so to do that, the lawyer has to request a hearing in superior court, try to convince that judge to grant a bond. And we’ve done that many times. Just because you’re charged with a serious crime doesn’t mean you can’t get a bond. You can get a bond even if for a murder case in Georgia, but you have to convince a superior court judge to set one. That process is certainly gonna take more time than simply getting a bond at the jail.

Now, the next time you’re gonna go back to court or even hear about your case perhaps, is when there’s been an accusation or an indictment filed. So let’s say you’ve been arrested, you’ve been released, you’re out on bond, you’re at home, you’re working, you’re living your life. It may take several months, many months in some cases, for you to get a notice saying, “It’s time to go back to court.” That notice will usually come after you’ve been accused or indicted, and that’s the formal charge. An accusation is basically a document filed by the prosecutor with the court, charging you with a particular offense. And for most crimes in Georgia, that’s okay.

But there are some serious crimes again, that are treated a little bit differently, and for those crimes, the prosecutor has to go to a grand jury and get an indictment, has to convince the grand jury to vote to bring you back to court. And that’s usually easy for a prosecutor to do because it’s their show, you know, you don’t get to present evidence in front of the grand jury. Your lawyer doesn’t know when it’s happening, usually, cannot appear in there, cannot ask questions. So it’s really not a fair shot. So, usually, if they want an indictment, they’re gonna get an indictment. Either way, accusation or an indictment, that’s the formal charge that brings you back to court.

And when you come back to court, it’s usually for your arraignment. Now, that’s just a formality in most counties. All you’re doing is coming to court, signing a piece of paper or appearing in front of a judge and saying, “I’m not guilty.” Some county, some judges will allow you to do that by signing a piece of paper. You may not even have to go to court. You can waive that arraignment. And again, this arraignment may take several months after you are initially arrested and released from jail. But the date is important because the arraignment date sets the clock or starts the clock ticking from when your lawyer has to file motions in the court.

Now, hopefully after the arraignment, sometimes at the arraignment and in a few cases, before, your lawyer will receive information from the prosecutor, what we call “discovery.” And that’s the package of stuff that the state’s gonna use to try to convict you in this case. It’s the evidence they have against you. Could be police reports, say there was a traffic stop, you may have a copy of the video of the traffic stop, witness statements, crime lab reports, all kinds of information that the state has that they’re gonna use against you in their case. They have to give that information to your lawyer. That’s the discovery.

But that’s not the end of the case because they’re not going to try to give you information that’s helpful to you in all cases. Your lawyer needs to go out and do an independent investigation, talk to the witnesses, visit the so called crime scene, consult with experts, hire investigators, do everything you can to develop the evidence that you will need to defend the case in court. You cannot simply rely on the discovery material that’s produced by the prosecutor. There’s usually a lot more out there to help you win the case.

Now, as you’re getting the evidence in, your lawyer should be considering pretrial motions. Motions that can be filed challenging certain aspects of the case. Now, in Georgia criminal cases, we’ll almost always see a motion to suppress evidence when there’s been any kind of search. It can be as simple as a traffic stop where you get pulled over for speeding and they searched the car. Maybe they say they had your consent to search, but they really didn’t. Maybe they had no reasonable basis to stop the car to begin with. That can be challenged in a motion to suppress, and we’ve won many of those motions. And usually, if you can win a motion to suppress, especially in a drug case where the police find something in your car or find something in your house, or a computer case, where there’s an allegation of fraud or possession of contraband images. If you can successfully challenge the search of that computer, the case is usually over with. So very important to consider pretrial motions to suppress. But there are many other pretrial motions and it all depends on the facts of the case as to what sort of issues your lawyer can raise before trial.

There are also demands. You can demand evidence be produced to you. And in some cases, your lawyer should consider filing what’s called a speedy trial demand. In Georgia, you really don’t get a right to a speedy trial unless you ask for one. So, if your lawyer’s gonna be prepared to try the case and you really wanna get that kinda leverage, or especially somebody’s still in jail, didn’t get a bond, you always wanna consider filing that speedy trial demand.

Now, you’re gonna go to court probably more than you realize. These cases, especially a serious felony case in Georgia, it may take multiple court appearances before it’s resolved and certainly, if you wanna go to trial, you’re probably gonna be going to court month after month for trial calendars, status conferences, pretrial hearings. And really, that’s just the court’s attempt to try to get your lawyer and the state to resolve the case, to focus on the case. So you’ll get a notice, maybe it’s every month to show back up into court. You’ll walk in there, there’ll be a bunch of other people, a bunch of other cases. You’ll simply make an announcement, “I’m here and our case is still pending,” but expect that. Don’t expect the case to be resolved within a month or two unless your lawyer has already arranged a negotiated resolution or a dismissal of the case. If you’re gonna go to trial, it may take a few court appearances before you get there.

And of course, all during this process, your lawyer’s likely talking to the prosecutor about a potential plea. You know, what can you do for us? In Georgia, there are a lot of options. The case can be resolved by a dismissal. And many times, if your lawyer has done his or her job and discovered good solid evidence that can help you, that the prosecutor may not have been aware of, you can convince the prosecutor to dismiss the case. If you have a good pretrial motion that either a judge has looked favorably upon or it’s a very solid issue, you can convince the prosecutor to dismiss the case.

But beyond dismissal, there are very favorable resolutions like pretrial diversion, first offender act treatment, all kinds of things that will allow a person to avoid prison, even in a serious felony case. And when it is a prison case, of course, plea negotiations can involve getting rid of mandatory minimum sentences, all types of different favorable treatment, just depending upon your lawyer’s ability to negotiate that with the prosecutor.

But ultimately, if plea negotiations are not successful, you have to consider taking the case to trial. And in many situations, and I know this from experience, we usually get the best results when we’re prepared to take the case to trial. When we’ve done all of this work to get to that point, I’ve had prosecutors come to me literally the night before, call me on the phone, “Hey, how can we resolve this? I’ll give you what you want now.” And I suppose that’s because in many cases, the defense lawyer never prepared for trial, but the prosecutors know that we do, and so many times, they’ll just say, “Okay, well, we thought we’d call your bluff. We can’t do it. Here’s our best offer.” And many times, it’s something that’s reasonable to us or even a dismissal, in the right case. But also don’t be afraid of going to trial. Any good defense lawyer likes a trial. I’ve been surprised at some cases I thought where sure cases that needed to be resolved by a plea, but we ended up taking the case to trial because we did not get a reasonable offer and we won because the state was not properly prepared to win the case at trial.

So this is basically what happens and what you should expect in a Georgia criminal case from start to finish. Again, this process can take a long time and you may have questions during the process. If you or someone you know is going through this, feel free to give us a call. I’ve been representing people in cases like this for 23 years now and I can certainly answer questions and hopefully, help you through the process.