How Long Can a Criminal Case Take to Resolve?

Interviewer: How long do criminal cases take to resolve?  Specify the difference between proceeding to trial versus accepting a plea agreement.

Jack O’Donnell:  Short of the trial, sometimes there’s only one trip to court. But sometimes there can be as many as 10, 15 or 20.  You never like to see that but in certain cases there are many details that have to be worked out.

Eventually if it looks like it has hit a dead end in negotiations, you put it on the trial list and eventually it will get called into trial. In my opinion, it is generally a disappointment if a case can’t be worked out with reasonable compromise by both sides.

When Are You Protected by Miranda Rights?

Interviewer: Go back to during the arrest of the situation during the criminal process, when do Miranda rights come into play when confronted by the police?

Jack O’Donnell:  When they’re being interrogated and while they’re in custody.

Interviewer: Does it work like we see on the TV shows?

Jack O’Donnell: I tend to tell people that if you made a confession and you weren’t Mirandized we’d have the opportunity to keep the confession out. However, simply because you weren’t Mirandized doesn’t mean that the State’s going to throw the case out if there was no confession elicited.

Interviewer:  I guess some people have that misconception that id they weren’t read their rights, anything they said cannot be presented as evidence against them

Jack O’Donnell:  But if as long as you didn’t confess, what difference does it make?

If You Have Retained an Attorney, How Likely Is It That Criminal Charges Might Be Mitigated or Dismissed?

Interviewer:  How often can you get charges dropped, dismissed, or reduced so that the situation’s not so serious?

Jack O’Donnell: Pretty regularly. Sometimes they’re dropped after the client has to fulfill an obligation. This might be some community service, pay a charitable contribution, or stay out of trouble for a proscribed period of time. Also, they might be refrained from doing something, such as having no contact with another person.

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