Will My Miami Case Go to Trial?

By Jonathan Blecher on March 24, 2017

Were you recently arrested for a criminal offense in Miami? If so, you’re going to have a lot of questions right about now. Will you go to jail or prison? What will happen to your future and your family if you’re found guilty?

I’m not going to candy-coat it, Florida, along with Arizona and Texas has some of the toughest laws in the nation. If you’re facing criminal charges, the prosecutor is confident that he or she has enough evidence to win in court. Prosecutors don’t like to lose, so they’ll only pursue cases they think they can win. As a former prosecutor, I know this for certain.

What If the Charges Are Bogus?

What if the charges against you are bogus? Won’t they eventually get dismissed? While cases can and do get dismissed due to insufficient evidence, search and seizure violations and expired statutes of limitations, you don’t want to get your hopes up about a dismissal that may never come. Relying on a miraculous dismissal is a bad idea, especially if you don’t have a defense attorney.

Who Decides if My Case Goes to Trial?

I’ll tell you right now that prosecutors are in a constant state of overload, and so are the courts. For this reason, a large percentage of cases never make it to court. Instead, the majority of them are resolved through plea bargains.

While a prosecutor can put a deal on the table – it goes both ways – the defense can try to get the prosecution to agree to a deal as well. In either case, the future of the case rests upon the criminal defendant. It is the defendant who decides whether or not to accept the prosecutor’s plea bargain.

Usually, a defendant will opt for trial when they are innocent and do not want to plead guilty to something they didn’t do. Or, the defendant will choose trial because they don’t think the prosecution has enough evidence to convince a jury of their guilt.

It’s important to listen to your defense attorney’s advice about whether you should accept or reject a plea bargain; however, it is up to you, the defendant, to accept a deal or go to trial.

Regardless of how your defense lawyer feels about your decision, he or she is required to inform you of all deals presented by the prosecution, and they must relay any information from you to the prosecutor.

Will you go to trial? It all depends on whether you decide to or not. To learn more, contact my Miami criminal defense firm for a free consultation!