There are five basic steps in the criminal justice system. Not every case will proceed as described below. Your attorney will explain to you about your particular case.

The five (5) basic steps of a criminal proceeding are:

• Arrest
• Preliminary hearing
• Grand jury investigation
• Arraignment in Criminal Court
• Trial by jury

All cases that begin by someone swearing out a warrant must go through General Sessions Court.

There are 5 General Sessions Court judges in Knox County. They "rotate" their work schedules on a 5-week rotation. That means a judge will sit this week in misdemeanor division, next week in DUI, the following week in felony division, the next week they will hear the cited docket and finally, he or she will hear a week of civil cases. That will conclude their 5-week rotation and they will return to misdemeanor division.

Judges try to keep cases assigned to them on their dockets, which means, if your case has to be continued, it will usually be rescheduled for 5 weeks at a time.

The primary purposes of Sessions Court is to determine the legitimacy of the warrant in your case. Stated another way, the Sessions Court judge's first responsibility is to make a determination that there is a legitimate basis upon which the warrant against you was issued. It is sometimes referred to as the judge making a "probable cause" finding. Is there probable cause to believe an offense was committed and that you are probably the person who committed the offense.

The judge does not determine your guilt or innocence. The judge makes a probable cause finding. He or she does this by conducting what is called a preliminary hearing.

Many of our clients think that their case will be concluded or finished in Sessions Court. You must remember, Sessions Court judges only have misdemeanor jurisdiction. While all cases, felony and misdemeanor, that begin by someone swearing out a warrant, will go through Sessions Court, a Sessions Court judge has the authority to conclude only misdemeanor cases, and they can do that, only if both parties agree.

In other words, the primary purpose of Sessions Court is to conduct a preliminary hearing to determine if probable cause exists to justify the issuance of your arrest warrant. No matter what level of offense you are charged with, a misdemeanor or a felony, you have the right to a preliminary hearing in Sessions Court. Additionally, both you and the state that is prosecuting you have the right to have the grand jury investigate your case and you have the right to a trial by jury in Criminal Court.

However, in misdemeanor cases, if you wish to give up these rights and conclude your case in Sessions Court, you can. This is sometimes referred to as signing a "waiver of rights." However, since the state also has the right to have your case reviewed by a grand jury and has a right to a trial by jury in your case, in order to give the Sessions Court judge the authority to conclude your case, both you and the prosecuting attorney must waive your rights to a grand jury investigation and the right to a trial by jury in Criminal Court.

The state may or may not be willing to offer you, through your attorney, some plea bargain or some way to work your case out at the Sessions Court level. If they are willing to offer you a plea bargain, you and your attorney must make a very important decision. You must understand, that your attorney is ethically bound to convey to you all offers to settle your case made by the state whether the attorney thinks that offer is a good and fair resolution or not. The fact that your attorney tells you about the offer to settle your case made by the state does not mean, and should not be interpreted by you, as the attorney's suggestion that you should plead guilty. If, however, the state is not willing to work your case out, you will then proceed to a preliminary hearing

Some people have the impression that Public Defenders plead all of their clients guilty. That is not true. The lawyers in this office are dedicated and want your case resolved the way that you want it to be resolved. We have a responsibility to you to offer our best professional judgment about the merits of an offer to settle, but you will make the ultimate decision. No attorney from this office will make the decision whether you should plead guilty or whether you should waive any of your constitutional rights. While there may be occasions where we may think you are making a bad decision and genuinely try to get you to accept the action we recommend, all of the lawyers in this office will respect you as the ultimate decision maker and will stand by you and zealously represent you.

The rights that a person has at the Sessions Court level are important and you should consider waiving these rights only after careful consideration by you. The attorney should fully explain to you the consequences of giving up your rights. You should be very comfortable with your decision before you surrender those rights.

Most people charged with a misdemeanor in Sessions Court conclude their case in Sessions Court. Usually, the client, through his or her lawyer, works out a settlement of the case in a manner that is satisfactory to both the client and the prosecuting attorney and both parties "waive" their rights to a grand jury investigation and waive their right to a trial by jury in Criminal Court. The client's case is concluded, usually through the entry of a plea of guilty to some offense and an agreed sentence is imposed, one that is satisfactory to both sides.

Usually, a portion, or all of a client's sentence is "suspended" and the client is placed on some sort of probation. There will usually be some "conditions of probation" imposed on you. That means, there will be certain things you will need to do or not do. For instance, report to a probation officer, complete community service requirements, submit to drug screens, pay fines and/or costs and probation fees, appear on your scheduled report back date, and most importantly, not get arrested on any new charges.

You and your case are important to us. Life can be difficult enough without a criminal conviction on your record. Please cooperate with your lawyer. We want to resolve your case in the best possible way.