4. Calendar Court Date
One of the first questions from a good Sonoma County DUI lawyer will be "what is your first court date?" If you don't know the first court date, or worse, you ignore your first court date in Santa Rosa, or forget to appear in Sonoma County Superior Court, then the court will most likely immediately issue a warrant for your arrest. Such a development would likely lead to severe inconvenience to you (including arrest and incarceration), and would later look bad to the court. Private Santa Rosa DUI attorneys appear for their clients to that this doesn't happen.
The Sonoma County Criminal Court location to appear on your own following a DUI arrest is here:
Court date on citation.
In many cases you can find your promise to appear court date at the bottom of the citation you were handed by police. Click below to see samples of typical citations in Sonoma County showing an arrestee's first court date at the bottom of the front side, and additional information on the reverse:
Healdsburg Police Department citation
Petaluma Police Department citation
Rohnert Park Police Department citation
Santa Rosa Police Department citation
Sonoma County Sheriff citation
Sonoma State University citation
Court date on bail papers.
If you did not receive a citation, or it has no court date, but you bailed out of jail, then your bail receipt should have your court date listed. Click here for examples of your first court date listed on an Aladdin Bail Receipt, or Aladdin Statement Of Charges, or a Romelli Bail Receipt, or a Bail Bonds America (Bad Boys) Calendar Sheet. If you paid a cash bail directly to the court rather than using a bail company, then click here to see an example of a Cash Bail Receipt page where the first court date is hand-written at the bottom, or a small Jail Receipt where the first court date is printed at the bottom.
District Attorney Cite Letter.
Sometimes no citation is issued at the time of an incident (often after an accident), or a defendant shows for court at the time listed and there are no charges, or for some other reason a defendant receives a Cite Letter from the Sonoma County District Attorney, listing the charges filed, a first court date to appear, and typically a request to present for booking and release one week prior to the court date if booking was not performed following the incident in question. This is the time to hire a local Santa Rosa DUI lawyer if not already accomplished.
With respect to the request to appear for booking, most DUI lawyers are aware of PC 853.6(g) which allows for such a booking procedure, but this statute provides that failure to comply with the request to present for booking prior to court simply results in an order from the judge to do so before the next court appearance.
Juvenile drivers.
Juvenile DUI's (under age 18) are usually treated differently than adult DUI's in Sonoma County. The juvenile probation department in Santa Rosa is typically first to become involved, and will usually contact a juvenile and his/her parents with a letter several weeks after the arrest, requesting an interview about family life, school, and substance abuse. Click here to see an example of such a Probation Letter.
A DUI lawyer may accompany the juvenile and parents to this probation interview. A decision will be made whether to recommend Sonoma County juvenile court proceedings at the Los Guilucos Juvenile Court in Sonoma.
Haven't hired a lawyer yet?
If you haven't yet hired a Santa Rosa DUI attorney, and cannot decide what to do before your first appearance, you may stand up in court in Santa Rosa when your case is called, and tell the judge that you want additional time to speak with a lawyer. If you cannot afford to hire a private lawyer, then you may appear at the first court date and before saying anything else, ask for a public defender to be appointed (note: Sonoma County public defenders do not contact DMV for you or handle DMV hearings). The reasons listed above for getting a local Sonoma County DUI lawyer apply whether you are paying for a private attorney or using a publicly appointed attorney. Get a lawyer!