Santa Clara District Attorney no longer providing criminal pre file case status!

Rabin Nabizadeh
March 21, 2017

When you are arrested for a DUI in Santa Clara (CA Vehicle Code 23152), you can comfortably assume that the date listed on your citation will be the actual court date.  Criminal attorneys don’t make a habit of checking ahead of time whether the district attorney will file charges or not.

This is not true in other types of cases in which there is a real chances that despite an arrest, the District Attorney will not formally charge the case.  Criminal attorneys will often put significant efforts to convince the District Attorney not to file charges on charges such as Domestic Violence (penal code 273.5, 243e) , theft (penal code 487), resisting arrest (penal code 148), battery (penal code 242) and so on.  The difference between these and a DUI is a human witness that may make the district attorney case less strong and therefore impact a decision to formally charge.

For some reason, the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office has decided to not provide information as to a decision once one is made and the staff is directing individuals to contact the court.  That sounds easy enough!  But there is one HUGE hurdle. The court usually does not know what the filing status is just because a decision has been made.  Something has to be filed for the court to be aware of the case.  Therefore, we now live in a world where you can’t find out whether you have court until the DAY OF court.

This leads to much unnecessary anxiety and despair.

Furthermore, there appears to be no possible justification for the refusal to provide case status.  We are asking the public to join us in pressuring the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office to change this policy.

Please call 408 299-7400 and tell the District Attorney to provide you with your case information because it is their duty.

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