What is a formal arraignment?

If your case is moved past the preliminary hearing, the next step is the formal arraignment.

A formal arraignment is when the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania informs you of the details of the charges against you.  You will be given a copy of the information sheet and be advised of your rights. This is also when you will enter your plea of “guilty” or “not guilty”.

While it is called a “formal” arraignment, it is usually a brief meeting where you will receive your paperwork and sign for it.

Should I just plead guilty?

If you plead guilty, you will be found guilty 100% of the time.

At The McShane Firm, our default position is to plead “not guilty” and request a jury trial.  There are many benefits to this.

• There may be technical issues with the evidence which can be grounds for a dismissal.  We won’t know this until we take a hard look at the evidence.  Sometimes police officers or other key witnesses are not available for a trial which can weaken a case
• Pleading “not guilty” at formal arraignment gives us room to negotiate.  Many times prosecutors will offer a favorable deal rather than go through a trial against us.
• Sometimes even the strongest cases fall apart during trial.  For example, during the pressure of a cross examination sometimes witnesses make statements that can call the evidence into question and throw the entire case off track.

We will never have that chance to see if you can get a better outcome if you plead guilty.

But another lawyer told me to just plead guilty.

Many lawyers are paperwork lawyers.  They take as many clients as they can and just process guilty pleas.  It is less work and they make tons of money off of it.

At The McShane Firm, we pride ourselves on fighting.  Yes we charge more than those lawyers because we plan on doing a lot more work.  We will examine the evidence  and see if there are any issues of law or science that we can use to raise challenges.  We want to protect families in Central PA and will fight to do that.

If you want to just plead guilty, then frankly you don’t need us.

Can I wait until after the formal arraignment to hire an attorney?

This is a bad idea. There are certain very important motions that need to be filed by specific deadlines after the formal arraignment.  If you delay, you may miss the deadlines and severely hurt your case.

•  Within seven (7) days after the formal arraignment, a motion for a bill of particulars must be filed. This is a request for the Commonwealth of PA to provide more details about the Who, What, Where, and When of the case.
• Within fourteen (14) days of the formal arraignment, an informal request for discovery must be made.  This is a request to obtain all of the police reports, videos, and test results collected by the police.
• Within thirty (30) days of the formal arraignment, an omnibus pretrial motion must be filed.  An omnibus pretrial motion is a motion to suppress or dismiss charges due to a violation of rights or due process.  For example, if the police did not have probable cause  to stop your vehicle, we would file an omnibus pretrial motion to challenge that.

Also, hiring an attorney prior to your formal arraignment means in most instances that you won’t have to attend that court hearing. Attorney’s are able to waive formal arraignment and enter a not guilty plea on your behalf. Saves you time and that’s one day you don’t have to take off work. 

If you have questions about a criminal charge and want to fight, then call The McShane Firm at 1-866-MCSHANE.  We want to hear from you. We want to fight for you.