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Video Transcribed: Step four in a misdemeanor case in Oklahoma, the status conference. I’m a Tulsa attorney, James Wirth, and we’re about to talk about status conference. Okay. So the first thing to talk about that’s a status conference, it comes directly after the arraignment. It’s the first docket after the arraignment. It goes by different names.
It seems like every court calls it something different. Could be a conference docket, sounding docket, status conference docket. But whatever you call it, pretty much the same sort of thing happens. Between the arraignment and that next court date, the status date, usually the defendant has an opportunity to get discovery to review that.
The prosecutor has a chance to review their discovery and go over it. So this is really the first opportunity to sit down and meet with the prosecutor so that defenses can be presented, arguments could be made, and deals can be potentially worked out. At this docket, sometimes the deals worked out that day.
Other times, there’s other factors that the defenses that you want to look into, that you want to kind of build those up, there may be witness statements and other things you want to get to try to make your case stronger over time. And then it just kind of continues on that.
So from this docket, it could be reset on the same docket multiple times depending on what you’re trying to do and what county you’re in. Different judges handle it differently. Some judges do not like this docket going on and on and on because sometimes it has a tendency to do so.
Because there is some benefits sometimes to the defendant to drag things out. And sometimes prosecutors get really busy with their cases and don’t have time to push things forward. So sometimes the judge will push it forward and not want it set too many times on that status docket.
But generally speaking, what happens there is it’s somewhat informal. If you call the docket, the judge makes sure that you’re there. Because if you’re not there, warrant issues. But as long as you’re there, then the parties usually have an opportunity to conference with the prosecutor, sit down and make some arguments, potentially get something worked out.
And if not, it could be reset to another status conference date or it could be moved forward on the road to trial. If you’re going through a case, you’re going to want more than this general information though. You’re going to want information specific to your court and your judge, and you’re only going to get that from an experienced attorney. So if you want to talk to somebody from my office, the Wirth Law Office, go to makelaweasy.com.
