Your Georgia DUI Arraignment – The First Court Appearance
Many people want to know where is my case going to go from here, what happens next. After you have bonded out of jail, the first proceeding that most people will come to is called the arraignment. The arraignment is a proceeding at which the judge will read to you the charges in your case, if you want to have them read. You can plead guilty or not guilty. If you stand mute and say nothing, the judge will enter a not guilty plea for you. At that point in time, many significant things happen. That is you are going to have the opportunity to file motions in your case, if your attorney sees that there are legal issues that need to be addressed. In addition to motions being filed at the arraignment, there are other things that can happen including possible negotiation of the case to some extent. Or putting the case off for a motion hearing, a pretrial motion hearing, with the judge that will come later. The arraignment is an important phase in the case because failure to file motions or take certain steps in the case at that point can waive them or give them up for all purposes after that date.
