Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arizona

Number of Judges

How many Judges can there be in a criminal case? Beginning from the pre-trial hearing all the way to the sentencing hearing? Are the Hearing Officers concidered ''Judges''? If there is more than one Judge who over sees a case does that not make the case more difficult to sentence?, considering that the sentencing Judge is only going by what he or she reads in the files, from the previous Judges? I have been told by people to whom I have discussed my case with, and have been told that my case would be a mistrial due to the fact that there has been too many Judges involved in my case. Thank you for taking your time to read and answer my questions, Your help is appreciated very much.


Asked on 9/18/02, 12:11 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jason Lamm Jason D. Lamm Attorney at Law

Re: Number of Judges

Recent administrative changes in many court systems - Maricopa Co. in particular - have resulted in a pretrial judge being assigned as well as a trial judge. Moreover, in some instances, one judge will cover another's calendar in emergency circumstances. This includes, on occasion, mid trial. This in and of itself does not result in a mistrial.

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Answered on 9/18/02, 11:02 am


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