Middlesex County Pre-Indictment Proceedings
The landscape of criminal defense has definitely changed in Middlesex County over the last few years by virtue of more meaningful pre-indictment proceedings. The approach traditionally taken in criminal cases was to fight as long and hard as possible, and this would translate into the best result to the charges. The Middlesex County Criminal Court, as well as the Middlesex County Prosecutors Office, now takes a much different approach to resolution of criminal charges such that dragging a case out can now have significant negative implications.
The majority of indictable charges in Middlesex County including drug distribution, theft, aggravated assault, and robbery, are listed for pre-indictment hearing. At this hearing, you are supposed to receive the prosecutor's best plea offer. If you choose to reject the offer, the prosecutor is obliged to indict the accused and the next offer is to be more severe than the pre-indictment offer. The result of this approach is that if a defendant and/or attorney miscalculates the pre-indictment offer, he is not going to have the opportunity to back track and accept the pre-indictment offer.
In order to properly assess whether a pre-indictment offer should be accepted requires experience and knowledge. In this regard, our Middlesex County Criminal Defense Attorneys have over forty (40) years of defense experience in NJ. This knowledge is invaluable in insuring that our clients are properly advised at Middlesex County Pre-Indictment hearings.
