What are the four stages of the judicial process?
Describe each stage, explaining in detail any differences between the criminal and civil courts
1). Pretrial is a conference held before the trial begins to bring the parties together to outline discovery proceedings and to define the issues to be tried; more useful in civil than in criminal cases. Typically, a criminal defendant's first court hearing is an "arraignment" before a judge or magistrate. An "arraignment" is an appearance in court where charges are formally read to a defendant. The judge or magistrate may also evaluate whether there was probable cause for an arrest, and may compel the prosecutor to allege additional facts to support the arrest. If probable cause is not established, the defendant must be released. If bail has not previously been set, it is often set at the same time as the arraignment. Bail (or "bond") is often granted in a standard amount, depending upon the crime charged. In civil trials, one person or party has reached the conclusion that their outstanding disagreement or dispute with another individual or entity can no longer be resolved through informal damage plea bargaining without the intervention of the judicial system and a civil trial. To initiate the process of a civil trial, individuals are required to file a complaint within the court of appropriate jurisdiction. Jurisdiction is determined by assessing whether the court receiving the complaint has power over a defendant and whether the property involved in a dispute is within the given jurisdiction. Filing a complaint in the wrong jurisdiction leaves the courts no choice, but to decline to rule or even hear the case until filed in the correct jurisdiction. A petitioner for the plaintiff, generally an attorney, will file the complaint in the correct jurisdiction, along with a motion in limine requesting the admission of evidence to bolster plaintiff's complaint claims.