What goes on during Preliminary Hearings?:
A pretrial hearing is a meeting with the judge that happens before trial, if the parties have not come to an agreement by that point. Usually, the judge tries to get a sense of how the trial will come out and nudge the parties to compromise along those lines.
In reaching this probable cause decision, the judge listens to arguments from the government (through a government attorney, or "prosecutor"), and from the defendant (usually through his or her attorney). The prosecutor may call witnesses to testify, and can introduce physical evidence in an effort to convince the judge that the case should go to trial. The defense usually cross-examines the government's witnesses and calls into question any other evidence presented against the defendant, seeking to convince the judge that the prosecutor's case is not strong enough, so that the case against the defendant must be dismissed before trial.
In gross misdemeanor and felony cases there is typically a second appearance, which is known as the preliminary hearing or preliminary examination. Rule 5(c) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and state rules of criminal procedure follow essentially the same process for this type of hearing. Unlike the informality of a first appearance.
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