Legal Question in Criminal Law in Georgia

My husband is currently incarerated on a 15 year first offender "alfred plea" with 5 years to serve (not mandatory to serve all 5 yrs) in Georgia. June 22, 2011 will make 1 year sence he has been incarcerated. I hired a lawyer and we filed a motion for a sentence reduction. We went to court on Wednesday April 6, 2011 asking for the reduction. The Judge asked to review the D.A.'s file (which the D.A. said would take him a couple of days to copy all of the cd's in their file) and our lawyers file. The Judge should have gotten the copied cd's from the D.A.'s file by that following Monday. It is now July 5th (1 month later) and we still have not heard an answer from the Judge. I know how busy Judge's can be. I have called our lawyer twice since court and he said that the Judge was in court all week one week and took a vacation another week, however, I was thinking between the other 2 weeks he could have reviewed some of the case. I hate to keep bothering my lawyer about it if he still hasn't heard anything himself. My question is...is the a time limit on how long a Judge has until he HAS to give us a yes or no answer? I know every case is different and every Judge and county/state is different, but, how long is the "average" waiting time for an answer to a sentence reduction? I can't help but worry has he forgotten about the case or what's going on. Thanks for your time.


Asked on 5/04/11, 8:43 am

3 Answers from Attorneys
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

No answers (i.e. guesses) to your questions from people who know nothing about the situation will help your specific situation at all. This is why you have a lawyer.

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Answered on 5/04/11, 8:46 am
S. Carlton Rouse Rouse & Co., LLC

You may not want to hear it, but I will say it anyway. You hired a lawyer for a reason. He/she is responsible to give you legal advice and counsel. Instead of wasting time and energy online, make an appointment to meet with him/her. After all that's what you're pay for.

Best regards,

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Answered on 5/04/11, 8:52 am
Lawrence Lewis Lawrence Lewis, P.C.

Pretend the judge said NO and move on. Your husband is one year into a five year sentence, and you want to know if the law mandates that the judge must make a decision by a certain date. The judge is doing you a favor. Keep doign what you are doing, and you will be guaranteed that the sentence will not be reduced.

Lawrence

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Answered on 5/04/11, 9:14 am


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