What is a Case Management Hearing?
Felony cases in Mohave County, Arizona have several pretrial hearings that are scheduled. One of those hearings is called a Case Management Hearing.
A Case Management Hearing is a hearing—a pretrial hearing that is set after an arraignment. Now, the purpose of the Case Management Hearing is two things. The Judge wants to know, at a Case Management Hearing if there's any problems with discovery. The Judge will also want to know if there's any plea offer that has been made in the case. Most cases—most criminal cases do get resolved with plea offers. The Judge wants to know if one has been made.
You may be asking yourself, why do we have these status hearings and what's the purpose? The court sets these cases for status hearings and a Case Management Hearing specifically because the court wants to be assured that the criminal case is going along. For example, if you're a defendant and you have a public defender, the court wants to make sure that the public defender and the defendant are talking to each other. If the prosecution has not sent out disclosure to an attorney, the Court wants to make sure that that disclosure is being made because the State has the deadline to give that disclosure to defense counsel and the defendant. The Court needs to be aware of any issues.
As far as the plea offer, sometimes the court wants to make sure that if there is a plea offer that's made, the defendant needs to know about it. The defendant can know right away whether the plea offer is an option that they wish to pursue. After the case management hearing is concluded, the case will be set for an omnibus hearing. And, I've made another video about what an omnibus hearing is, so you can understand that.
If you have a question about a criminal case, please give my office a call. Let's find out if your case is something we can help you with. Call my office at 928-753-6868 or visit my website at HampLaw.com.