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Preparing for the Preliminary Hearing

The preliminary hearing that occurs following your arrest and detention can be an especially confusing time, especially if you are not prepared for what happens when you are arrested. Your Sacramento criminal defense attorney will use the time before your preliminary hearing to do several things to prepare your case, chiefly, developing a theory to use as your defense argument.

At the preliminary hearing, your attorney will question witnesses and try to obtain testimony that will be useful to your defense and laying the groundwork for your theory. Or it might become apparent that your attorney’s strategy is not very plausible and should be revised in favor of another one. You might think your attorney should defend you aggressively and treat every witness as hostile, but that would be mistake at this early stage. The hearing is not a trial, and your case is not prosecuted at this point. The hearing is largely for procedural matters, not substantive ones (such as which witnesses are lying or whether the arresting officer was abusive). For this reason, you should not testify at the hearing.

Your criminal defense attorney will ask you several questions, such as whether you were at the scene of the crime, what excuse you have for your conduct, and whether you have any prior history with the victim or anyone else who was present. This will be useful information to building your defense and establishing your credibility.

If you have further questions about how to act at your preliminary hearing, contact the law office of Sacramento criminal defense attorney Param Pabla to schedule an initial consultation.

Client Reviews
★★★★★
“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