Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Yes, you or your attorney can go to court early and request the case be advanced to that day and the arraignment done. Understand that the arraignment is where you plead guilty or not guilty. Guilty gets you immediately sentenced. Not guilty gets you another court date set for PreTrial Conference hearing with the DA for plea bargaining. If no deal is made, then a trial date will be set.

If you don't know how to represent yourself effectively against an experienced prosecutor intending to convict, then hire an attorney who does, who will try to get a dismissal, charge reduction, diversion, program, or other decent outcome through plea bargain, or take it to trial if appropriate. First offense shoplifting can sometimes be resolved without an actual conviction on your record if handled right.

Also, on misdemeanors and infractions, your attorney can appear in court without the defendant being present, so your time pressure would be gone..

If serious about hiring counsel to help in this, and if the charges are in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me. I�ll be happy to help fight the criminal charges and get the best outcome possible, using whatever defenses there may be. .

You could potentially advance the case, but that is assuming the DA has filed a case against you. If the case isn't filed yet, there is nothing to advance. They have up to a year to file misdemeanor charges against you.

If you hire an attorney, they can appear for you and you wouldn't have to go to court. They can probably get a better deal than you could on your own. They may even be able to avoid a conviction.

Do yourself a favor - see a local criminal defense attorney or two.

you can also "trigger" a filing potentially ... while it may be possible to advance an arraignment, I don't recommend it as a practice. To me that has the flavor somehow of stirring up 'a hornet's nest' and so I don't to do that except in a rare case. (which I know has already been filed). As above, having an attorney handle it for you is the best advice. Good luck!