Whether you are charged with DUI or another misdemeanor or felony criminal offense, you should not waive your preliminary hearing without speaking to an attorney. A preliminary hearing gives you and your attorney a chance to find out about the case against you. You do not get to hear all the evidence against you, but you will get to hear more than you will if you waive the preliminary hearing.

Especially in the case of a DUI, the testimony is likely to be primarily from the arresting officer. In almost all cases in York County, PA, you will not have the chance to get sworn testimony "on the record" with an officer until later at a suppression hearing or trial, months later. If you think that you were stopped illegally, this is your best chance to "lock in" the testimony of the arresting officer.

One of the problems people have with preliminary hearings is that almost all individuals accused of a criminal offense of some kind have very little idea of what the rules are for search and seizure cases. Very few people know when police are allowed to stop them. If you assume that the police had a right to stop you and you do not talk to a lawyer before deciding to waive your preliminary hearing, you may be making a huge mistake.

The benefit of attending the preliminary hearing, especially in a DUI case, is that your attorney will bring along a stenographer (a court reporter) who will transcribe the sworn testimony that the officer will give about the stop and arrest. In virtually all DUI cases, the District Attorney's office will not send a representative. This will let your attorney get as many facts as possible from the arresting officer locked in, so that the story cannot change later after the officer has spoken to an assistant D.A. right before a suppression hearing. If the story does change or if new facts mysteriously emerge, your attorney will have a record of the officer's prior sworn testimony to use during cross examination.

There is no suggestion here that the police lie under oath at preliminary hearings or suppression hearings. The suggestion is simply that someone from the D.A.'s office might be good at helping the officer to remember additional details about events surrounding a stop and arrest. The attorneys working in the D.A.'s office are diligent, hard-working people who are good at their jobs. It is their job to help an officer get all the relevant facts out during testimony, so that the officer does not forget to identify a defendant or forget to mention a particular field sobriety test that was given, etc. 

The cost for a stenographer to attend a preliminary hearing and to make a transcript will be about $100.00. If no transcript is needed, you can save a few bucks by deciding not to have it transcribed. If you decide to attend your preliminary hearing with your attorney, you should almost always have a stenographer present. 

To discuss whether you should attend the preliminary hearing in your case, , you should call attorney Joseph N. Gothie, Esq., at (717) 848-8455 to set up a free, confidential, no-risk consultation to discuss your case.

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