Court procedure addressed by Fairfax criminal lawyer

Court procedure in Fairfax County and beyond, addressed by Fairfax criminal lawyer

Court procedure can seem strange and daunting to criminal defendants. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know the importance of my clients knowing basic procedure in advance of their trial date, so that they may transcend the jitters of being in a courthouse where the prosecutor wants to get them branded as a convicted person, and have them sentenced, maybe even to jail or prison time.

Fairfax criminal lawyer on entering the courthouse as a warrior

I enter the Virginia courthouses as a warrior with my client’s best possible outcome as my sole goal. I invite my client to join me as a team in this effort, where the less a criminal defendant sweats, the more a force to be reckoned with we can become. Court procedure must not be a barrier to winning.

Know court procedure by visiting the courthouse before your first substantive court date

Unless you live far from the courthouse, familiarize yourself with court procedure by visiting the courthouse and its criminal courtrooms before your first substantive court date, in the morning and on a day when the courtrooms are busiest, ideally accompanied by your criminal defense lawyer. You will learn that this is not some rarefied hall of justice, but instead an arena of rough and tumble criminal defense battle, with judges aware that if they do not move cases along, court will need to stay open after hours to process the hundreds of traffic infraction and criminal cases that move each week through the Fairfax County courthouse alone.

Own your courthouse turf

The courthouses belong to us, the people. Many judges, prosecutors, courthouse security personnel, and police forget this truism. Whatever you do to make yourself comfortable in a new workplace, new vacation spot, or new home, put that into practice in the courthouse, where court procedure can seem stilted and overly formal at best. Criminal defendants do not want to have to be in court, but this is the only place where you have the opportunity to pursue the best possible outcome in your criminal case.

I tell my Virginia clients to wait outside the courtroom

I want my clients with Virginia criminal court to wait in the hallway outside the courtroom until we are close to having our case called, unless court procedure requires otherwise. The judge and prosecutor already know I am my client’s lawyer, and I am going to be interacting with my client numerous times before we go into court.

My criminal defense clients deserve confidential communications with me

Every courthouse has conference rooms or other private areas where we can further strategize and address court procedure. Even the most innocent-seeming comment or question from my criminal defense client might be ammunition for the police officer or prosecutor passing by us. I ask my clients to save confidential communications for confidential meeting spaces.

This is a two-part article. Part two covers courtroom procedure. 

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan L. Katz pursues your best defense against felony, misdemeanor and DUI prosecutions. Jon Katz will be delighted to discuss your criminal case with you through a confidential consultation scheduled through his staff at 703-383-1100.