When you have been arrested for a criminal case, you begin to understand that you are in a whole new world. The police arrest you and then you go in for a hearing to await some type of bail. Once you have been to your assigned bail hearing you will either be released or held in jail until the day of your trial. Before you go to your trial, you might want to know what type of trials there are.
There are two types of trials that are used in criminal courts. The first type of a trial is what is called a bench trial. This type of trial is when there is no jury. A bench trial basically means that the judge will hear all of the court case and then solely the judge will decide on what they think the verdict should be. The judge will also be the one to sentence to you to what ever the punishment might be. This can be a helpful type of trial if you are worried about what a whole jury of people might think. If you think that they will rule negatively on your case then you might ask your Criminal lawyer in Austin to help you to get a bench trial instead of a trial by jury.
The next type of trial is what is called a jury trial. This type of trial is for the most part self explanatory. This trial means that there will be a jury that goes through the entire trial process. At the end of the trial, they will get together and deliberate to decide on what the verdict will be. There are usually 12 people in a jury and to get an official verdict from the jury, you must have a 100% vote from the jury. This may be a positive aspect because of the number of people that are in the jury. If you are worried about your vote, you might decide on a jury trial because you will have more people that might side with your views. Some people choose to have a jury trial because they might they have more of an option for people to feel for the person that they are trying to prosecute. This can also be a negative aspect because people might not side with you and this might end your case badly.
