An arraignment is your first appearance in court or before a judge on a criminal charge. The charges against you will be read or you will be asked if you are aware of the charges against you, and you will be asked at arraignment how you wish to plead.

In response to arraignments, the accused is expected to enter a plea. Such pleas vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. However, they usually include “guilty”, “not guilty”, and the peremptory pleas, which set out reasons why a trial cannot proceed.

Generally, failure to attend an arraignment in most cases results in fines,criminal charges, and sometimes in issuing an immediate arrest warrant. Quite often one must appear at an arraignment to avoid such. A person charged with a crime that is not held in jail is given a date and time to attend his or her arraignments. In case you are being held in jail, without specific charges, you must be arraigned within 24-48 hours of the arrest. As a rule, the prosecutor produces enough evidence to demonstrate probable cause for a charge. The person being held in jail is not charged, and is released if no charge can be made.