Continued From the May 4th, 2011 Blog
At the preliminary hearing for a Pennsylvania DUI case or other types of criminal cases you will have two options: 1) you can waive your hearing; or 2) you can have a hearing and force the Commonwealth to present evidence. Waiving your hearing means that you concede that the Commonwealth has meet its burden on the charges and you allow the case to proceed to the next level. Many times deals can be worked out at the preliminary hearing. Deals at the preliminary hearing typically come in two forms: 1) negotiated waivers; and 2) liberty waivers. A negotiated waiver is when the Commonwealth will drop one of the more serious charges in exchange for a waiver on the less serious charges. The typical example is an assault case. Many times the Commonwealth will drop Aggravated Assault (a felony) in exchange for the defendant "waiving up" on Simple assault (a misdemeanor). A liberty waiver is when the Commonwealth will stipulate to a reduction in bail in exchange for your waiver of the preliminary hearing.
It is your right under Pennsylvania law to have a preliminary hearing. The Commonwealth must produce evidence in the form of witnesses. If you choose to have a hearing the preliminary hearing is conducted much like a trial. Your attorney will have the right to cross-examine the Commonwealth's witnesses. At the end of the Commonwealth's case-in-chief you have the right to produce evidence and have witnesses testify on your behalf. At the end of the hearing the attorneys make closing arguments to the judge. Next, the judge will decide if the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth"target="_blank"
>Commonwealth has satisfied its burden on some or all of the charges. The judge has the option to dismiss charges or send the charges to the Court of Common Pleas in the county seat of the county where you are being prosecuted. If at least one of the misdemeanor or felony charges is "held for court" (sent to the Court of Common Pleas) the judge will give you an arraignment date and will forward a preliminary hearing transcript to the Court of Common Pleas indicating what charges were held for court.
If you are facing DUI charges and have an upcoming preliminary hearing contact Jason R. Antoine, Chester County DUI lawyer for a free consultation.
