Item: Law Office of Param S. Pabla
Rating: 5
Author: Gurpreet

How Credit is Handled for Time Spent in Pre-Trial or Pre-Sentence Custody

If you are arrested and facing criminal charges, you will need the services of an experienced Sacramento DUI attorney to secure your release by posting bail and making sure that your time served before trial will be counted towards your sentence.

Handling Credit for Federal and State Courts

All federal courts and most state courts credit the amount of time a defendant already served in pre-trial custody towards the defendant’s sentence. Regardless of jurisdictions, if a defendant was jailed because he could not afford to post bond, the courts must credit the defendant for their time spent in pre-trial or pre-sentence custody due to the defendant’s financial difficulty.

However, most states will not recognize the defendant’s pre-trial or pre-sentence time if it was spent:

In a halfway house.
Under house arrest.
On electronic monitoring.

If you are represented by a qualified Sacramento DUI attorney at the time of the arrest, your attorney will attempt to secure your freedom on bail. Once you are released on bail, you will have the freedom to effectively conduct your business and personal affairs, and better assist your attorney to prepare a defense. Even home confinement is preferable over outright incarceration, which can be extremely difficult for the defendant.

A conviction will call for a completely different approach. If you are sentenced to be incarcerated, then your Sacramento DUI attorney may counsel you not to request house arrest as a condition of bail pending appeal.

How Credit Applies in Two-Jurisdiction Situations

If you were arrested for a crime in a separate jurisdiction while already detained or facing charges in one jurisdiction, the following events will likely occur:

Your attorney must ensure that your time in custody is credited toward your sentence. You will be credited for pre-trial time you spent in custody only for the sentence carried out by the jurisdiction where the pre-trial custody occurred. You must tell the attorney in which jurisdiction you want to apply the credit and serve time, so he can set up bail determination in that jurisdiction.

★★★★★

“Mr. Pabla represented me with my DUI case. He has excellent communication skills and always kept me informed. Mr. Pabla made sure I understood the process and my rights. He eased my mind through a very stressful situation. I highly recommend Mr. Pabla.” Gurpreet

“I am so happy with the service that I received from Param S. Pabla. Jarrett did a great job solving my legal issue and I can’t recommend him enough! He was able to do everything quickly, painlessly, and was ALWAYS available to talk when I needed him. If I ever need help again, I will definitely use him!" Boris

“Param was excellent in my court case of failure to stop at a stop sign. The officer could not see clearly because he was too far away. The officer insisted he could and said he had video but could not produce it at the trial. The officer then asked if he could suspend the trial to go get the video but the judge said he should have had plenty of time to get the video ready beforehand. Needless to say, the judge ruled in my favor and dismissed the case which enraged the officer. Pabla Param’s defense and cross examination skills were excellent and paramount in having the case dismissed. Highly recommended.” T.C.

“My husband and I needed to update everything -family trust, will, medical stuff. Param was really patient -answering all my questions -even when I asked them twice. He wanted to be sure I understood everything we were doing. All docs were sent to us so we could go through them on our own time before anything was finalized. I also liked when we were looking at medical stuff that he had a conversation with me about what I wanted and pointed out some things I didn’t think of.” Debbie

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