Preliminary Hearing Not Important?
In previous articles, Summers and Wyatt have emphasized the absolute requirement of not waiving a preliminary hearing in General Sessions Court except in the most extraordinary circumstances. This is often inconvenient for the attorneys because the prosecutors usually try to get rid of all other cases before they have a hearing. For this reason, many lawyers aren’t willing to spend the time waiting for the cases to be heard.
At Summers and Wyatt, we believe that this is one of the next most critical stages of the criminal proceedings and it is an excellent opportunity to either learn as much about the state’s case or to possibly get the charges reduced in the lower court or lay the foundation for getting them dismissed or reduced in Criminal Court.
During the past few weeks, Jerry Summers and Marya Schalk have won three Motions to suppress to get DUI cases dismissed and got the prosecutors to reduce a fifth (5th) offense felony DUI charge reduced to a first (1st) offense conviction.
The initial information obtained at the Preliminary Hearing laid the foundation for these results and reaffirmed our longstanding belief in the importance of the Preliminary Hearing.