Walk It Through: The First Charge
A bond hearing, an interpreter in the courtroom, and pretrial intervention.
A man who speaks little English is arrested on a first charge of shoplifting over the petit larceny limit.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One man's first charge. Immigration consequences of a charge, eligibility rules changed this year, trial, sentencing and clearing other records are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Appearance bondA bond in a set amount with sureties the court approves, one of the conditions a court may impose when it finds release on recognizance will not assure appearance or will create unreasonable danger.
- Domestic violenceCausing physical harm or injury to one's own household member, or offering or attempting to with apparent present ability under circumstances reasonably creating fear of imminent peril, graded in degrees.
- Own recognizanceRelease pending trial on the person's own promise, without surety, in an amount the court sets. A person charged with a noncapital offense is released this way unless the court finds a reason the section names not to.
- Qualified interpreterA person eighteen years of age or older, not a family member of a party or witness, able to interpret simultaneously and consecutively and to sight translate documents, whom the court appoints in a criminal case for a person who does not speak or understand English well enough.
- Pretrial interventionA solicitor's program that ends, on successful completion, in a noncriminal disposition of the charge, after which the person may ask the court to destroy the arrest records.