Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Hiring a private attorney after arrainment

How effective your new lawyer can be will depend upon his or her talent and workload, the complexity of your case and what your public defender (assuming you have one) has done thus far.

Whether he or she can get an extension of time will depend upon the case's procedural history (the more delays there have been thus far the less likely it becomes that the court will grant another) and the judge's attitude toward continuances.

All you have told us is that you've been arraigned and that your trial is 25 days away. There is no way to assess the issues I listed with so little information.

Re: Hiring a private attorney after arrainment

Well, yes and yes. I say that because both are correct. Yes, a new attorney can be ready to go to trial with 25 days left. It all depends on how complicated and complex the case. The more serious or complicated the case, the less likely the attorney can be ready to go in the given time frame. If the case is complicated, the Court can change the date. So, yes on both counts.

Re: Hiring a private attorney after arrainment

A good attorney, with available witnesses and defenses, can do just fine under those conditions, unless you're talking about a capital case or other major felony matter where you risk long term prison. In that case, he'd likely be given a continuance, but you didn't describe that kind of case, where there would already have been a pretrial and prelim hearing, which better have been done well. All it takes is money. Feel free to contact me if interested in doing so.