So it’s happened. You were driving home last weekend since having some drinks with friends and you got popped for DUI and you will need a accident lawyers Michigan. You think you did everything right – you didn’t tell the officer if you’d been drinking, and you refused field sobriety tests, but you ended up taking the inhalation test after speaking with a dui attorney Michigan on the phone. You were just over the legal limit and were pulled over for a simple traffic infraction, so you think you might have a fighting chance, but you’ve never been in trouble before, so the process seems a little terrifying.

If this is your first time dealing with the criminal practice and dui arrests. Don’t worry. The Michigan DUI law office and you have hired will be able to lead you through the method, and the courts are actually there to be helpful in most situations. But just in case you are still curious about what happens in court, here is a brief summary of the arraignment, your first court investigation.

Arraignment, for the most part, is a procedural vehicle to get the rest of the criminal process started. It is designed to make sure you are conscious of your rights, that if you prefer to exercise your rights you are accommodated even if you don’t have the money to do so, and that you are not languishing in jail with unfounded charges.

Arraignment, in a nutshell, is the first opportunity for you to arrive before the court. It is the time when the prosecutor must provide a copy of the charges opposed to you, it is the time when you go into your plea to the charges, and it is the occasion you can demand an attorney if you want to have one appointed to you.

Arraignment must be brought within fifteen days of your arrest if you are reserved in custody (jail). If you are not in custody, you have to be arraigned within fifteen days of your first court appearance. Often your arraignment will be your primary court appearance if you are not in custody. If you are not brought to arraignment within fifteen days and you are in custody, the charges against you will be discharged.

In reality, the majority of your arraignment will consist of waiting to get called up in front of the judge. Often arraignments are done en masse, with up to 100 people called in for one 8:45 a.m. court time. When up in front of the judge, the process takes less than two minutes and sounds something like this:

Attorney: Good morning, your honor. Attorney there with client. Client has established a copy of the arraignment, waives proper reading of the arraignment, instructs to probable cause for the point of arraignment, and enters a plea of not guilty.

Judge: Is (client name) your real name?

Client: Yes.

Judge: Okay, let’s set a pretrial date…

And then you are done. The possible reason portion of that statement often worries people. All that means is that you are giving the judge a open pass to discover probable reason for the charges that are filed. It’s a time saver that allows you to get out of there without the judge having to read the police reports (which will in all but the most remote of situations amount to probable cause for the purposes of arraignment). Stipulating to probable cause just tells the judge he doesn’t have to interpret the police registers that morning.