INITIAL APPEARANCES



Initial Appearances


COURT DATE/RESCHEDULING A COURT DATE

Your court date and time are listed on the citation that you recieved. If you are unsure of your court date you can contact the City Attorney's Office at 217-479-3510 to confirm the date, time and location.

If you are unable to appear on your court date you must contact us at least 24 hours in advance to request a rescheduled court date. If you fail to appear and fail to contact us a defult judgement will be made against you.

To reschedule a bench trial, you must notify us at least 7 business days prior to the trial date with an acceptable reason for the request.


PLEA OPTIONS

The plea you enter is very important.  Please consider each plea carefully before making a decision.

Guilty Plea
A plea of guilty means you admit that you committed the charged offense and accept the punishment as issued by the court.

Not Guilty Plea:  A plea of not guilty means you deny guilt or that you have a defense in your case.  If you wish to plea not guilty you must attend your Initial Appearance hearing to enter your plea. At that time a date will be set for a bench trial. If you plead not guilty, you will need to decide whether to hire an attorney or represent yourself. You may bring witnesses to testify on your behalf and any evidence that you feel will help prove your case. Any pictures that you have to present as evidence must be printed so that the court may add them to your file. Any videos must be made available on a cd or memory stick.   After your trial, the hearing officer will make a ruling or take the matter under advisement, in which case the findings will be mailed to you. If you are found guilty a fine/punishment will be ordered. If you choose to appeal the court's decision you will have 35 days to do so at the Morgan County Courthouse.


FAILURE TO APPEAR

Initial appearances are mandatory. Failure to appear will result in a finding of guilty by default and an order will be sent in the mail stating your fine amount, due date and any further orders from the court. If you have questions, or want to plead guilty and pay in full before your court date, you may contact the City Attorney's Office at 217-479-3510.