Court Settings

 

With the exception of the Initial Appearance (IA) Docket and the Contest (CT) Docket, County Criminal Court No. 8 normally sets it's cases on a Pre-Trial (PT) Docket.  These cases are set for a variety of purposes, which include but are not limited to the following:

 

Pre-Trial Docket (PT)
The Pre-Trial Docket (PT) is the general setting docket for County Criminal Court No. 8.  Most settings will appear on the PT Dockets.

Initial Appearance Setting (IA)
The purpose of the IA docket is to ensure that each defendant has an attorney on all pending cases. A case will not progress to the next court event until the defendant's representation issues have been settled. Once representation issues are settled, the cases are usually passed for about 30 days at the discretion of the judge or court coordinator for Announcement. 

Contest Docket (CT)
Contest dockets are held on Monday mornings. We generally pick a jury on our first case on Monday afternoons and reach a second trial the middle of the week.  The judge is the one who will grant continuances or re-arrange the order in which cases will be tried after consulting with attorneys for both sides.

Announcement Setting (AN)
The purpose of the AN setting is for the defense attorneys to announce their intentions as to the type of resolution of the case(s), i.e: Disposition or Trial. The case(s) will then be set for 60 to 90 days out for whichever type of resolution has been announced to the Court. 

Disposition/Plea Setting (DI/PL)
The purpose of the DI/PL setting is for cases that have been set for a plea, sentencing, conditional dismissal or some other sort of disposition (other than trial) to be resolved at this setting.  All requests for continuance must be approved by the judge.

Motion Setting (MT)
The State and Defense must file all pre-trial motions within thirty days after the Announcement setting.  Attorneys must request a hearing date from the Court Coordinator on any motions that the he/she wishes to have heard prior to trial.

Probation Revocation Setting (PR)
In most cases, attempts will be made by the Court's probation officer to set up a court conference with the judge before probation revocations will be filed. A determination will be made at the court conference as to the best type of resolution of probation issues.  Failure to appear at any court conference may result in a warrant being issued. 

(*Attorneys and Defendants are required to appear at every setting unless previously excused by the Judge or Court Coordinator. )