When a person is first arrested, they have to see a judge within 24 hours to have their release conditions determined.
That can range anywhere from being released on your own recognizance, which essentially means that you don’t have to post a bond and are allowed to return home on your promise to come back to court on a specific date, all the way up to being held without bond where you remain in jail through the duration of your case. In many cases, the judge will impose what’s called pretrial services as a condition of release. Essentially, pretrial services in many ways is like being on probation. If you’re subject to pretrial services monitoring during the pendency of your case, you have to check in with your pretrial services officer after every court appearance. And you may also be required to submit to random drug testing and have unannounced, unscheduled visits at your home or your office from your pretrial services officer.
Although most people are unhappy to learn that they’ll be placed on pretrial services, it can actually be a blessing in disguise in the sense that once your case reaches the point where you’re being sentenced by the judge, the pretrial services division will provide you with a report to the judge informing him or her of your performance on pretrial services and if you’ve done well on pretrial services most judges will look at that and give it weight and make the determination that if you are complying with pretrial services that you’ll do well on probation and consider that in a request made by your attorney to give you a favorable sentence.
Call us today if you have questions about your release conditions – we can help.
