You Are Entitled, Here’s How
Video Transcribed: When are you entitled to a jury trial in Tulsa City Court? I’m Oklahoma attorney James Wirth. That’s the question that we have. I’m doing a series related to questions related to Tulsa Municipal Court, and the question is, when are you entitled to a jury trial?
All right, so the municipal court cannot handle felonies, only handles traffic citations up to misdemeanors, and for those, sometimes you’re entitled to a jury trial. Sometimes you’re only allowed a bench trial. If you are entitled to a jury trial, that doesn’t mean you have to have a jury trial. Most cases get resolved through plea negotiations and a plea deal, and even those that don’t, if they go forward for a trial, you could still waive your right to jury trial and have a bench trial, and let the judge decide. But if you are not entitled to a jury trial, then you get a bench trial if you don’t work out a deal, and you don’t get that jury trial.
So when are you entitled to one? It’s actually statutory. It’s part of Oklahoma Statutes, Title 11, Section 28-102, and it says, “In cases when the penalty provided by the violation of an ordinance is a fine in the amount of $500, excluding court costs, or by imprisonment, more than four,” I’m sorry, “more than $500, excluding costs, or by imprisonment, or by such fine and imprisonment, all persons charged before the municipal criminal court of record shall be entitled to a trial by jury unless waived by the defendant.”
So when are you entitled to a jury to hear your case in Tulsa Municipal Court? It’s if what you are charged with carries a fine of more than $500 or any length of a prison term. If it has any possibility of a range of punishment involving prison or a fine of $500 or more, then you’re entitled to a jury trial. You can raise that right and have that done. However, as I said, doesn’t mean you have to. You could still waive that if you wanted a bench trial, or obviously, most cases do get resolved through plea negotiations and working out a plea deal.
If you are dealing with a case in Tulsa Municipal Court, you’re probably going to want to talk about your circumstances privately and confidentially with a Tulsa defense lawyer rather than just take this general information. If you’d like to get that scheduled with somebody at my office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com.
