Another reason to have a lawyer represent you in a New Jersey Municipal Court…

May 15th, 2007 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Criminal & Traffic

This morning I represented a client in a NJ Municipal Court in southern New Jersey for a careless driving ticket. I will not mention the name of the court. The defendants and the attorneys were sent a notice to be present in court at 8:30 a.m. Both my client and I were present in court and checked in by 8:25 a.m. We sat around until 9:00 a.m. and nothing was happening. 9:15 a.m.—same thing. Finally, at almost 9:30 a.m. the judge takes the bench and starts his greeting.

For some reason, the prosecutor was not in court either until 9:30 a.m. There must have been about 100 people waiting in court for over an hour after the stated court time.

Why is this? I have no idea.

New Jersey states that its Municipal Court system is the court where most citizens have their first experience with our justice system. I believe this is correct.

So why then are local judges and prosecutors allowed to start court an hour late? Will the public have any confidence in our justice system if this is their first experience? Hopefully somebody will read this blog entry and take appropriate action.

Court rules state that defendants with lawyers present in NJ Courts, get priority in getting their matter before the court. This is because many lawyers have to be in more than one court at any given time. This way the lawyer can get in and out and on to the next court.

So, if you retain a NJ lawyer to represent you in an NJ Municipal Court, chances are that you will get your matter completed, and you will be on your way a whole lot faster than unrepresented defendants. Lawyers can also waive the first court appearance known as Arraignment.

It is unfortunate that the defendants and perhaps innocent witnesses had to wait several hours to have their case brought before the court this morning. One hour of the waiting time could have been eliminated if the court started at the time it said it was supposed to start.