Defendant

Question: When sentencing a defendant in New Jersey, do judges ever not find aggravating factors 3 and 9? 3: The risk defendant will commit another offense 9: The need to deter defendant and the public. It seems to me they always do.

Answer: No, they frequently do not find 3 and/or 9. Especially for non-violent offenses.

Question: Can a defendant sit in and listen to anonther defendants deposition if they are defendants to the same case? I recently conducted depostions. The one defendant sat in and listened to everyones depostion that I was taking, including other defendants on the case. Is that legal? Did I make an error?

Answer: Probably should not have allowed that to happen.

Question: How long does a defendant have to respond in court in the state of nh? Please locate the rule regarding when and how a defendant must respond in your state's district court(s) rules. How much time does a defendant have to answer?

Answer: How many days you have to respond to a lawsuit should be spelled out for you in your summons to appear in court. If that wasn't made clear to you in the summons, call the court that issued the summons.

Question: When does probation start if defendant was absent at sentencing? If the defendant was absent and skipped his sentencing at court, but the judge sentenced him to probation anyway, when does it start? Can the probation conclude before the defendant ever actually knew about it, even if he didn't report in, if it starts at sentencing? Thanks.

Answer: It starts at sentencing. They should give the defendant a call saying that hes been ordered on probation right after.

Question: Am I allowed to cross-examine a defendant and witnesses when going pro-se in a civil protection order hearing? Three lying witnesses and a lying defendant (all lying under oath) caused me to lose my civil domestic-violence-protection order hearing on Feb. 5, 2009. I am preparing to re-open my case with new evidence refuting the statements of the defendant. Am I allowed to cross-examine a defendant and witnesses during their testimony in a civil protection-order hearing while going pro-se?

Answer: You have a right to cross examine witnesses, BUT if the judge is any type of judge at all he will stop you every single time you cross the line. You can try to call the defendant to the stand, but if their lawyer is any good he or she will argue effectively against you being able to question them, and if you do get them up there they will object just about every 5 seconds if the questioning gets off point. For what it's worth, if you have evidence, ie witnesses, you should bring them and a transcript of the previous hearing, that's how you present the case, not putting people on the stand and calling them a liar. Won't work.

Question: How do defense lawyers defend the defendant if they know that they did the crime? Like they know that the defendant did the crime, and just BSing the lawyer when they said that they didnt. Or do the defendant have to admit to them that they did the crime? Also, can prosecuting and defending attorneys talk to each other? Like not during the trial?

Answer: Patrick In our system of law, the defendant is innocent until PROVEN guilty. The prosecution must prove the guilt. The job of the defense attorney is to get his client off.... guilty or not. Yes, the defense attorneys and District Attorney's know each other well. Soccerref

Question: What is the difference between a defendant and a co-defendant? What if there are 4 people involved in a trial and 3 of the 4 are codefendants, the 1 person is a defendant, what does that mean? Does being codefendant enable you to serve a lesser sentence?

Answer: Codefendants cases are handled together. If tried, they are tried together at the same time. If 3 are codefendants and 1 a sole defendant, that means the 3 codefendant cases will be handled as if they were one while the 1 sole defendant can anticipate entirely different handling and outcome.

Question: What happens if the defendant does not come to court on the appointed date? Let's say it's a case for late rent and you already filled out the eviction notice to be served by sheriffs. Will the sheriffs evict the tenant once they have received information that the defendant was a no show in court.

Answer: Like the others have said: you don't get jailed for failing to appear in response to a summons in civil court. The plaintiff in that case should ask the judge to declare an immediate default and to grant a default judgment in his/her favor. The order from that judgment would include an instruction to the sheriff to physically remove the defendant from the premises if they are still there on such and such date. The plaintiff would then need to ensure that the defendant gets a copy of the order (either by personal service or posting it at the house). Then the plaintiff just sits back and lets the sheriff do his job.

Question: How long does the defendant in a child custody case have to reply in nebraska? We have been waiting since Aug of 08 to finalize the custody case to get my step daughter. We are waiting for the defendant(the ex) to sign the paperwork. We are not sure where she is living and we are not sure if her lawyer knows where she is. Please help cause we want this to be over!!

Answer: In our custody battle my husband got custody of his son and the mom kept stalling the signing of the paper work. After about a month our lawyer sent it to her lawyer, who looked it over and agreed that that was the agreement made by her client and it was submitted to judge WITHOUT the mom's signature with a note from our lawyer saying that her lawyer had looked it over and agreed that that is what was decided but it had already been a month and the Mother didn't look like she was going to sign it any time soon, so we would like to submit this to the court for your approval. It was signed about 2 weeks later. The Judge's clerk tried to find the mom as well and couldn't get her to come in so he signed it, and it was legit then. It is sad that people use this as a stall tactic so they don't have to start paying child support, or so they can continue to get child support, or because they just don't give a crap, but it happens a LOT. This may work in your case as well. Best of luck!

Question: What would happen if a defendant confesses to being guilty during a trial? If a defendant were to be called to the stand as a witness and then eventually confess during examination, what would happen to him/her?

Answer: Either he would take a plea (if one is offered) or HOPEFULLY he would be found guilty by the jury. A judge cannot direct a guilty verdict.

Question: What would happen to a defendant if they did not take action in responding to a complaint in a civil suit? Say they don't reply to a summon and don't submit an answer, just completely don't follow through, what could happen to the defendant? I am just trying to confirm my thoughts on this for an assignment lol, I'm not in any trouble here. Thank you all.

Answer: The defendant will lose the case. The plaintiff will petition the court for a default judgment and will get the default judgment. It will then be up to the plaintiff to collect the judgment amount from the defendant.

Question: How can a defendant in a civil case get contact information of a plaintiff represented by an attorney.? The Plaintiff has all information about a self represented Defendant, but the Counsel for the Plaintiff shields the Plaintiff from any information going to the Defendant. Any way to deal with this legally ?

Answer: Schedule a deposition of the plaintiff. At that deposition, ask whatever you want to know. The gathering of information for a trial is called discovery and there are specific mechanisms. None of those mechanisms involve calling the lawyer on the phone and asking how you can contact his client directly.

Question: What is the process when a defendant states they wish to retract their Guilty plea? Defendant initially entered Guilty plea on first day of trial, however at sentencing hearing stated they want to retract Guilty plea. What happens now? What is likely outcome? Is this a slow process?

Answer: A person who has pleaded guilty on arraignment may change his or her plea at any time before sentence, but only by leave of the Judge. You will have to have a very good reason indeed to convince the Judge to grant leave. If he does, the process will start all over again.

Question: When a defendant in a civil case wished to challenge the courts personal or subject matter jurisdiction over? When a defendant in a civil case wishes to challenge the courts personal or subject matter jurisdiction over him, he should enter a plea of not guilty Tor F.

Answer: TRUE

Question: How would the court rule if the defendant is suffering from dementia? The defendant gives his son a power of attorney to defend a civil case in an English county court. After the trial is over but before the verdict is delivered it transpires that the defedant is suffering from dementia. Is his power of attorney valid? Is there a need for a re-trial.

Answer: There is no need for a retrial unless the court can determine that the defendant was incompetent WHEN he signed the POA, AND that the defense was not in his best interests.

Question: How Do I Serve a Summons to a Defendant Who Fled the Country & His Whereabouts are Unknown? I am trying to serve a summons to a Defendant in a lawsuit who allegedly fled the country. How do I find his location?

Answer: well civilians dont serve summons to other people. contact your local DA's office.

Question: Can only the defendant be indited in a grand jury? I am not even a witness I am just testifying regarding the case. I don't even know anything about the crime I just know the defendant and I hate him!

Answer: Greetings! The defendant becomes one as a result of the indictment. Until that time, he is just an citizen not charged with (the indictment) a crime. If you testify before a grand jury, your testimony more than likely resulted in part of his indictment. Good Luck

Question: What if the defendant does not want to show up on a tv court show? What are the consiquences for the defendant if they are not willing to appear on a TVcourt show?

Answer: TV court isn't court, it's arbitration. Both parties have to agree to the binding arbitration, otherwise the small claims case goes on as usual in the county it was filed in.

Question: What if the defendant was never served and the plaintiff wins? If a defendant wasn't served, and the plaintiff goes to court saying the defendant was served and the plaintiff wins, what does the defendant do to contest this?

Answer: It's pretty hard to contest service, since it's easily shown to be true or not. It would take an appeal to overturn the judgment.

Question: What happens if no lawyer is willing to defend a particular defendant? What happens if all lawyers, including public defenders, simply refuse to represent a particularly odious defendant in court? Does the defendant then simply defend himself? True, in theory you could always find a willing attorney sooner or later. But for the sake of argument what if every single attorney and lawyer simply refused to - wouldn't?

Answer: I don't think the public defender has an option to refuse the case, unless s/he is connected to the defendant or the victim. If it should happen, the defendant might get to walk if s/he refuses to represent his/erself.