The legal process is packed with terminology that can be misleading even to attorneys. For example, a pre-trial hearing certainly implies that trial is imminent or definite. Therefore, when our office advises a client, following an arraignment on a misdemeanor, that the judge set a pre-trial hearing, the client becomes anxious.

The client sometimes believes that his setting implies his or her case is going to trial without any attempt at plea bargaining. The client may believe that the judge on his or her own, or perhaps in cahoots with the prosecutor, is accelerating the case to pressure a guilty or no contest plea. The client may believe there will be a single further hearing, the pre-trial hearing, and then trial. These beliefs may be true, but, more often than not, they are mistaken.

This short article will attempt to explain what a pre-trial hearing is, why it is set, and what happens at such a hearing.