Practical guides to walking into a California courtroom prepared: what to wear, how to act, and how to be taken seriously by the judge.
Last reviewed: September 2026 If someone called your charge a “wobbler,” it means the crime can end up as a felony or as a misdemeanor. That is better news than it sounds. A wobbler filed as a felony can still come down, and California law gives more than one chance for that to happen. This…
What a California preliminary hearing is, when it has to happen, why the standard is so low, and what held to answer actually means for your felony case.
A California warrant can be recalled, but not made to quietly disappear. Here is who can go to court for you, who cannot, and why waiting never works.
The strap is the same strap either way. What changes everything is the paperwork that put it on your ankle. If the monitor was just one of the rules of your probation, you are facing a probation violation. If a judge let you out of jail into a monitoring program, cutting the monitor off can…
Ask 10 people what happens when police skip the Miranda warning. Nine will tell you the case gets thrown out. That has never been the law, and the belief comes almost entirely from television. A Miranda problem does not end a prosecution. At its very best it keeps one statement out of one part of…
Being released while your case is pending is not the same as being free. Here is what a California judge can require of you after arraignment, from alcohol testing and SCRAM devices to stay-away orders, firearm surrender, and GPS monitoring.
A California judge can sentence you to 180 days in county jail. That same judge, in most cases, cannot put you on home detention. The sheriff does that. This is the single most misunderstood thing about serving a jail sentence in California, and it drives almost every mistake that follows. Defendants assume the judge decides….
You were arrested and let go. Here’s what’s true right now. You probably haven’t been charged with anything yet. Police arrest people, but the District Attorney decides whether to file a case, and that usually hasn’t happened. Nothing is required of you tonight except one thing: stop talking about it. But look at the date…
If you missed a court date, there’s probably a warrant out for your arrest. It was issued the same morning you didn’t show up. Here’s the move, and it isn’t the one most sites give you: call the courthouse business office, not the clerk. Ask to get back on the calendar. You’ve got two separate…
Your first court date is called an arraignment. Here’s the short version. You stand up. The judge checks your name and tells you the charge. You say “not guilty.” The judge gives you a new date. Then you go home. It usually takes less than five minutes. You don’t have to explain anything, prove anything,…