What Happens At A Pretrial Hearing?
(back to top) This involves a meeting between prosecution and defense. Topics discussed include plea bargain opportunities, strengths and weaknesses of the prosecution’s case, pretrial motions and intangible factors of the case, such as the defendant’s character and past history. If your decision is to take your case to trial, the Court will set a trial date. If you enter into a plea bargain/sentencing recommendation it will happen at this hearing. If you decide to change your plea, in some cases your case will be set for a separate sentencing hearing and the court will order you to participate in a pre-sentence investigation prior to the sentencing hearing. The pre-sentence investigation is essentially an in-depth background check that will be presented to the court and can be very influential in the court’s determination of its sentence.
