Before Court Begins

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You must decide upon and enter a plea to the charge against you. If you signed a citation in front of an officer, you did not plead guilty, but only signed a promise to appear in court on your appearance date. There are three possible pleas to a complaint:
          -Guilty
          -No Contest
          -Not Guilty
Your decision on what plea to enter is the most important decision you will have to make. We suggest that you read the explanations of all three pleas before entering your plea.

Plea of Guilty
By a plea of guilty, you admit that you committed the act charged, that law prohibits the act, and that you have no defense for your act. Before entering your plea of guilty, you need to understand the following:

The City has the burden of proving its case against you.
You have the right to hear the City's evidence and to require it to prove its case. If it does not, the law does not require you to anything.
If you were involved in a traffic accident at the time of the alleged offense, your plea of guilty could be used later in a civil suit for damages as an admission by you that you were at fault or were the party responsible for the accident.

Plea of No Contest
A plea of no contest simply means that you do not wish to contest the City's charge against you. The Judge will enter judgement and a fine amount will be set. A plea of no contest cannot be used against you in a civil suit for damages.

Plea of Not Guilty
A plea of not guilty means that you are informing the Court that you deny guilt and that the City must prove its charges against you.

If you plead not guilty, you will need to decide whether to employ an attorney to represent you at trial. You may defend yourself, but noone else except an attorney may represent you.

Under our American system of justice, all persons are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. On a plea of not guilty, a trial is held and the City is required to prove all the allegations against you as contained in the formal complaint "beyond a reasonable doubt", before a verdict of "guilty" can be reached.

NOTICE OF OBLIGATION TO PARENT AND JUVENILE DEFENDANT
State law requires the managing conservator, parent or guardian of a minor child less than 17 years of age to appear in Municipal Court with the child to resolve this case. Failure of a parent, managing conservator or guardian to appear may be punishable as a Class “C” Misdemeanor.
A child and parent managing conservator or guardian required to appear before the Court have an obligation to provide the Court, in writing, with the current address and residence of the child. The obligation does not end when the child reaches age 17. On or before the seventh (7th) day after the date the child or parent changes residence, the child or parent shall notify the Court of the current address in the manner directed by the Court. A violation of the subsection may result in arrest and is a Class “C” Misdemeanor. The obligation to provide notice terminates on discharge and satisfaction of the Judgment or final disposition not requiring a finding of guilt (Code of Criminal Procedure Ar. 45.057. sect. h).