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Central Arraignment Courthouse

Central Arraignment Court Criminal Attorney

Any time you face a criminal charge it is a serious matter. Your freedom as you know it is at stake. If you do not retain the services of an aggressive Los Angeles criminal lawyer, then you may face the highest penalties possible for your criminal charges. By working with Hedding Law Firm, you can expect to receive an outstanding commitment for your case, whether you have been accused of a sex crime, violent crime, Drug crime, domestic violence, DUI, or any other offense.

In Los Angeles the Central Arraignment Courthouse handles serious misdemeanor cases only. We have been able to obtain alternative sentencing in lieu of jail time even for serious misdemeanor cases . In addition, depending on the circumstances of the case and charges, we have been able to have charges dropped entirely for our clients.

Main Arraignment Court in Los Angeles County

Department 30 is the main arraignment court in Los Angeles county.  There's arraignment courts in all the courthouses throughout Los Angeles which is one of the biggest locations as far as criminal courts go — prosecutors, judges, defendants.  It's a huge metropolis, so you have so many people coming in and out of it, being arrested, and sometimes you can get caught up in a big bureaucracy.

Any case that occurs in the downtown Los Angeles area is going to be prosecuted in central arraignment court which is department 30 on the 5th floor of 210 West Temple.  What used to be called the criminal courts building is now the Clara Foltz Shortridge courthouse — a lot of pictures of her and it is the main court in downtown Los Angeles.

The main prosecutor's offices are there on the 17th floor.  Also, some of the prosecutors are across the street at the newly-rebuilt Hall of Justice, but if it's a big case, it's downtown Los Angeles, it's going to be in department 30.

Even if a case doesn't occur in downtown Los Angeles and occurs in one of the other court's jurisdiction, if the case is serious enough, it will be sent to downtown to be dealt with because that's where they have all of the main prosecutors and that's where they do most of the court's business.  Big sex crime cases are prosecuted down there.  There's an integrity unit where they'll prosecute police officers down there and a whole host of other individuals.

Defense Lawyer With Experience Matters

So, if your case is in downtown department 30, obviously you're going to want to get an attorney who has experience handling cases.  I've been dealing with cases in department 30, the downtown central arraignment cour now for twenty-five years.  I remember starting in 1994.

The OJ trial was underway and was being held at the downtown courthouse on the 9th floor before Judge Ito and I was doing a bunch of cases in and out of there, so I got to see a lot of activity, the media.  It's incredible how the downtown structure and the prosecution of criminal cases has changed over the twenty-five years that I've been practicing.

I've been practicing criminal defense for twenty-five years.  I think that's what's important as far as deciding whether to hire somebody like me  — that I've got twenty-five years of defending people charged with crimes.

There's a lot of attorneys out there that are former prosecutors, but they don't have as much experience in defending people.  The prosecutors have a huge advantage in a criminal case because they've got law enforcement.  They've got endless money that's provided to them by the taxpayers, and usually when they file a case, they've got some evidence against the person.  So, being a criminal defense attorney is certainly not an easy job and certainly is not something that anyone can do.

So, if you've got a criminal case in downtown Los Angeles, you have to appear in department 30 which is the main arraignment court.  You definitely want to get somebody like me who knows the strategies and knows how to handle a case.  There's different things that can be done there.

Lawyer To Review Best Defense Strategy

You can leave it in department 30 and continue it.  You can enter a not-guilty plea, send it into one of the preliminary hearing courts.  You can have the case sent to department 50, which is the EDP — the early disposition court — but you don't want to make any of these moves unless you have a strategy in mind — unless you've sat down, talked to the attorney and decided exactly what you're going to do and make some moves that make sense for you.

That's my job, when we appear in department 30, to move the case in the right direction so you can get out of the criminal justice system as fast as possible. Contact our criminal defense lawyers to discuss the misdemeanor or felony charges against you!

The Central Arraignment Court is located at:

429 Bauchet Street
Los Angeles, California 90012

Central Arraignment Courts Criminal Defense Resources:

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