1-9-2015: Criminal Defense

Today, Peter Rost took me around various courts around the the greater Toledo Area. Mr. Rost is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice. He had clients who were defendants of many different charges, from domestic violence, to traffic violations, to resisting arrest. The only proceedings he had today were clients' arraignments and pretrial hearings, which took place in both the Toledo Municipal Court and the Sylvania Municipal Court. We began at the Toledo Municipal Court.

Many people call the Toledo Municipal Court "the people's court." This is because the Toledo Municipal Court receives cases that affect real people more so than cases that appear in the federal court. Cases are more "common offenses" than those that appear in federal court. Another nickname that the Toledo Municipal Court received is "little court," as Mr. Rost told me. This name was given by many of his clients because with the exception of preliminary hearings for felony charges, municipal courts are only able to handle traffic violations and misdemeanors, which are charges that carry relatively little weight.

My day began by watching arraignments. There are so many different cases that the court received, from traffic cases, to drug charges, to probation violations. We moved to different courtrooms, watching different procedures. Most of the proceedings only took two to five minutes each, and most of them today in all of the courtrooms were arraignments.

Arraignments are the first proceedings that defendants go through when they enter the legal system. They enter the legal system by being arrested or being told to come to court. This proceeding is when a judge reads a defendant's charges and asks how the defendant pleads. The options are to enter a plea of guilty, no contest (also called nolo contendere), not guilty, or not guilty by reason of insanity. A plea of guilty means that the defendant admits guilt and will automatically be sentenced (for more information on sentencing procedures, see blog post "1-6-2015: Sentencing"). A plea of no contest means that the defendant accepts the charges but not the guilt. A not guilty or not guilty by reason of insanity plea means that the defendant either denies the offense or has an excuse for the offense. Either plea results in a trial (trials will be discussed next week).

Mr. Rost had a client that he had to defend today for domestic violence charges and fleeing police. Mr. Rost thought that the best thing to do was to request an extension for his client's hearing today. I watched his proceeding happen, and his extension was granted.

Next was the Lucas County Court of Common Pleas. This court mainly handles felonies, a more serious type of charge. Therefore, Mr. Rost's clients know this court as the "big court." Mr. Rost had no clients to defend, so he showed me around to the different courtrooms in the building.

Finally, we ended the day at the Sylvania Municipal Court. Once again, municipal courts can only handle traffic violations and misdemeanors, with all other charges being sent to  a common pleas court. In the Sylvania Municipal Court, it was mainly arraignments that were happening, but Mr. Rost had two pretrial proceedings, both of which went well.

Although much of what happened today was difficult to understand because I didn't know what was going on, partly because I didn't know the cases and partly because I couldn't hear the judges and the defendants, I learned the roles of the different courts (a municipal court vs. a common pleas court), and I understand the process that defendants travel through much better now.