Criminal Law Blog
February 03, 2007
The term “examining trial” is misleading. In Travis County, when an examining trial is set, that does not mean that an actual trial occurs. No witnesses show up. No judge shows up. No lawyers show up. You don’t show up. So, you might ask, what the heck is an examining trial for if it is not really a trial?
Here is the answer: an examining trial forces the prosecutor to either indict your case or let you out of jail. In the vast majority of cases, it simply forces the prosecutor to indict your case more quickly.
However, from time to time (and very infrequently) one of my clients will get out of jail because I set his case for an examining trial.
The second big advantage to setting a case for an examining trial is that once the case is indicted, I get to start doing discovery on the state’s file so that I can start answering your questions about what is going on with your case.
Thanks for reading.
