Packaging of Misdemeanor Cases Effective December 1, 2008
Saturday, November 29th, 2008
Packaging of Misdemeanor Cases Effective December 1, 2008
The County of Orange has implemented a misdemeanor packaging of cases effective December 1, 2008. This will involve a packaging of all of a defendant’s active misdemeanor and infraction cases filed in the County. Under this initiative, all active informal/formal misdemeanor probation cases, open unadjudicated misdemeanor matters, terminal disposition cases with outstanding sentence terms, and infraction matters will be packaged with open misdemeanor cases at the Orange County Superior Court in which the defendant is next appearing for arraignment. This means that even if a defendant has open cases in other courts throughout the County, they will all be transferred to the location of the newest offense to serve as companion cases to the new case. Thus, all the matters will be addressed by the new court.
The County advises that “the goal of the packaging plan is to manage a person through the system rather than a case, a ‘one stop shop’ approach to resolving cases. The benefits of case packaging are to provide an opportunity to adjudicate all of a defendant’s cases at a single appearance, reduce the movement of defendants, including in-custodies, from courthouse to courthouse, and to use resources more efficiently.”