Charges are not always filed by a Court date after being arrested or cited. That does not necessarily mean the case will never be filed later. Most criminal charges have a “statute of limitation” within which criminal charges must be filed or you cannot be prosecuted for that offense. In California, misdemeanors must be filed within 1 year of the incident, many felonies must be filed within 3 years, while some more serious felonies may have a much longer period of time to be filed and some, like murder, have no limitation on filing.
An assigned court date after being arrested or cited for an offense, the arraignment, is simply an administrative date set to formerly advise you of the offenses that have been officially charged by the District Attorney after reviewing the reports and evidence in your case. This court date is NOT a deadline to file charges. Whether the case is rejected and never filed or you are later charged depends on the evidence when it is reported, processed or discovered and the statute of limitations for the offense.
Charges can be filed after your court date and you can be notified by mail of a new court date or a warrant for your arrest can be issued after charges are filed. In California, if you are in custody and no charges have been filed within three court (business) days you will be released, but charges can still be filed later. There can be many reasons why a case is not filed by the court date but filed later.
- The prosecutor or law enforcement may need additional investigation.
- The police reports were not forwarded yet to the District Attorney for review.
- Lab or forensic testing may still need to be completed, especially in DUI, Drug and Sex cases.
- The prosecutor may not have enough evidence to prosecute or there are other problems with the case and charges will not be filed.
You must always make any court appearance you are given or a warrant for your arrest will be issued if the case is filed. If it is not filed, then you should go to the District Attorney’s (DA) office on the court date and get a “No File Letter”. This will confirm you were there and advise you that no charges are filed at this time but could be filed in the future. Then, if it is filed, you could receive a notify letter of a new court date or the DA could issue a warrant for your arrest. You will never get a letter stating that no charges will ever be filed. You should take the “no file letter” to your bondsman verifying you did go to the Court on your court date and no charges were filed. It is also a good idea if no charges were filed to check with the DA’s office periodically in the future to make sure nothing was filed later.
