Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Recourse for court not ready to proceed at hearing date

The inconvenience you suffered is unfortunate, but it is not a reason for a judge to dismiss any complaint that is eventually authorized ... unless the charging delay caused you actual prejudice. This does not mean "inconvenience" or "lost wages" or "aggravation". It means that the delay in charging the case deprived you of an opportunity to present a defense. This usually involves an unnecessary delay of years, and results in prejudice to the defendant because potentially exculpatory witnesses cannot be located anymore, etc.

Here's my guess as to what happened: The cop wrote you an appearance ticket on the possession charge ... but the prosecutor actually issues a charge like this, not the cop, and when the cop's narrative report got to the prosecutor's office they probably decided to delay issuing a charge until a lab report came back identifying that the substance was in fact marijuana ... and due to budget cuts and personnel shortages in the state crime labs these days, such matters take a lot longer than usual.

You are to be commended for following the ticket's directive, and showing up in court when required. I suggest that you keep in contact with the court by phone, and they'll tell you when to come in once a complaint has been authorized. Then, when the time comes for you to get arraigned by a judge or magistrate, tell him/her about your earlier trip to court (but cut out any 'attitude' about it!) and maybe your bond will be downsized because you showed yourself to be dependable to appear in court when reuired (which is a big issue to weigh when deciding how much bond to order on a defendant).

Other than that, consult with a criminal defense attorney to see if he/she has any other take on this issue.