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What Happens After an Arrest? In Louisiana, you are booked into a jail, then brought before a judge promptly, and in any case within 72 hours, excluding weekends and legal holidays, where counsel can be appointed and bail addressed. If you were arrested without a warrant and remain in custody, a magistrate must separately find probable cause within 48 hours. The district attorney then decides whether to file formal charges. Arraignment, pretrial motions, and either a negotiated resolution or a trial follow.

Most of what happens in the first days is procedural. Two things are in your control from the first minute: what you say, and how quickly you get a lawyer involved.

This guide walks through the Louisiana criminal process step by step, from jail intake through possible trial and appeal, with the Lafayette-area courts noted where local practice matters. It is general information about Louisiana procedure, not advice about your case, which turns on the specific charge, the evidence, your record, and the court handling the matter.

Key Takeaways

• An arrest is not a charge. Police arrest; the district attorney decides whether to file, what to file, and when.
• You must see a judge within 72 hours for appointment of counsel, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays (La. C.Cr.P. art. 230.1). If that deadline is missed, the remedy is release on your own recognizance , not dismissal of the case.
• The state faces deadlines to file charges. If you stay in custody, a bill of information or indictment is generally due within 30 days for a misdemeanor and 60 days for a felony (120 days for a felony punishable by death or life imprisonment). Out of custody: 90 and 150 days (art. 701).
• A grand jury is the exception, not the rule. Only capital crimes and crimes punishable by life imprisonment require indictment; everything else can be charged by bill of information.
• An arrest stays on your Louisiana criminal history even without a conviction, until it is expunged, and expungement does not happen automatically.

What Happens After an Arrest? The Louisiana Criminal Process

What Happens Immediately After an Arrest in Louisiana?

Immediately after an arrest, you are taken to a jail and booked in an administrative process, not a decision about guilt. Louisiana law requires the arresting officer to promptly take you to the nearest jail or police station and have you booked. Nobody at intake is deciding whether the arrest was lawful or whether you will be charged.

In Lafayette Parish, most arrests are processed through the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center, operated by the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office, which handles booking and identification for the city and surrounding municipalities. Intake can take a few hours or considerably longer depending on how busy the facility is.

What Is Recorded During Booking

The booking entry records your name and address, a list of property taken from you, the date and time of booking, and a booking information summary supplied by the arresting officer.

One detail surprises most people: the jail’s booking book and booking summaries are open to public inspection under Louisiana law. That is why an arrest can appear in a local arrest roundup within a day, before the district attorney has looked at the file, and before any charge exists. It also means family members can usually confirm where you are being held and what you were booked on.

What Happens to Your Personal Property

Items you had on you are inventoried and stored; items seized as evidence are not. Wallet, phone, keys, and jewelry are logged, and that list becomes part of the booking record. Keep the property receipt and check the inventory against it at release.

Evidence is handled differently. It stays with law enforcement while the case is pending, and getting it back generally requires a court order or the conclusion of the case. Ask your attorney early which category your phone falls into; phones are frequently held as evidence rather than stored as property.

Fingerprints, Photographs, and Your Arrest Record

Fingerprints and a booking photograph are taken for identification. The arrest is reported to the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification and Information, which maintains the state’s criminal history repository, the record commonly called a “rap sheet.” That entry exists from the arrest forward, whether or not charges are ever filed.

Louisiana’s rules on booking photographs have changed more than once in recent years. What currently matters to most people is the rule governing commercial “remove-for-pay” websites: if you were acquitted, not prosecuted, or had the charge expunged, vacated, or pardoned, such a site must remove and destroy the photograph after you submit proof of the disposition, and it cannot charge you a fee to do so.

What You Should Do in the First Hours After an Arrest

Say almost nothing, ask clearly for a lawyer, and assume everything else you say is being recorded. Those three habits protect more cases than anything that happens later.

Exercise Your Right to Remain Silent

The Louisiana Constitution requires that a person arrested or detained be fully advised of the reason for the arrest, the right to remain silent, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to counsel. Hearing those words is not the same as using them.

Say it out loud and plainly: “I am going to remain silent.” Then stop. You do not have to explain your side, correct the officer’s version of events, or clear anything up. Explanations given in a booking area, a patrol car, or an interview room become evidence, and a statement made to be helpful often narrows your options later.

Ask for an Attorney Before Answering Any Questions

From the moment of arrest, Louisiana law gives you the right to obtain and confer with counsel and to use a telephone or send a messenger to contact counsel or your family (La. C.Cr.P. art. 230). You do not have to wait until you see a judge, and you do not have to already have a lawyer to invoke the right.

The request has to be unambiguous. Under U.S. Supreme Court law, an equivocal reference to a lawyer, “maybe I should talk to a lawyer,” or “do you think I need one?”, does not require questioning to stop. Simply staying quiet does not invoke the right to silence either. Two short sentences do the work:

“I am going to remain silent. I want a lawyer.”

After that, do not restart the conversation yourself, including small talk.

Do Not Discuss Your Case on the Jail Phone

Calls placed from a jail are generally recorded and monitored, and recordings can be obtained and used by the prosecution. Properly handled attorney calls are treated differently; everything else is fair game, including the call where you explain to a family member what “really happened.”

Use those calls for logistics only: who is arranging a bond, who is contacting a lawyer, who is picking up your car.

Do Not Discuss Your Case With Anyone Else

Cellmates, visitors, co-defendants, and friends can all be subpoenaed. Conversations with your lawyer are privileged; those are not. The same caution applies to messages and posts.

Preserve What Your Lawyer Will Need

Start a list of what exists and who has it: witnesses and their phone numbers, businesses with cameras, receipts, texts, timestamps. Video is the item most often lost; private surveillance systems commonly overwrite within days.

<!– EDITORIAL NOTE (remove before publishing): Ben, if you want a genuine practice insight here, tell us (1) which documents you find most useful at a first consultation and (2) what records you check first on a new criminal file. We will add 2–3 short, attributed lines. Nothing has been invented in the meantime. –>

Your First Appearance Before a Judge

Louisiana requires that an arrested person be brought before a judge promptly, and in any case within 72 hours of arrest, for appointment of counsel , with Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays excluded from the count (La. C.Cr.P. art. 230.1).

What it means in practice. That exclusion is why a Friday-evening arrest can mean a longer wait than “72 hours” suggests. In many parishes, the appearance is conducted by video from the jail.

If the rule is violated. Article 230.1 provides that you are to be released on your own recognizance. The same article states that the failure has no effect on the validity of the proceedings against you afterward. The remedy is release, not the end of the case.

What Happens at the Initial Appearance

This hearing is short. You are advised of the charge for which you were booked and of your rights, counsel is assigned if you are entitled to appointed counsel, and the court may set bail or review a bail amount already fixed.

You are not expected to enter a plea, argue the facts, or explain anything. Nothing about the merits of the case is decided.

The 48-Hour Probable Cause Determination

If you were arrested without a warrant and remain in custody, you are entitled to a probable cause determination within 48 hours of arrest (La. C.Cr.P. art. 230.2). The arresting officer must promptly complete an affidavit of probable cause and submit it to a magistrate.

What it means. This is not an adversary proceeding. The magistrate can decide on affidavits or other written evidence, without you or a lawyer present. A finding of probable cause here does not waive your right to a preliminary examination later.

If the rule is violated. You are to be released on your own recognizance, though you can be rearrested if a warrant later issues on a finding of probable cause.

These are two separate clocks. The 48-hour rule tests whether there was a lawful basis to hold you. The 72-hour rule is about getting you in front of a judge and getting you a lawyer.

How a Court-Appointed Attorney Is Assigned

At the initial appearance, if you have the right to appointed counsel, the court must assign it. In practice, you are referred to the district public defender’s office, which evaluates whether you qualify financially and then assigns an attorney. Local rules differ by judicial district on when indigency is tested and when counsel is formally enrolled.

Appointed and retained counsel have the same obligations to you. The practical differences are caseload and how early someone can begin investigating. If you are considering hiring a lawyer, the useful time is before the charging decision, not after.

How Bail Works After an Arrest in Louisiana

A person in custody charged with an offense is generally entitled to bail before conviction, with narrow constitutional exceptions. The Louisiana Constitution provides that excessive bail shall not be required and that a person is bailable by sufficient surety before and during trial, except when charged with a capital offense where the proof is evident and the presumption of guilt is great.

There is a second exception. For a person charged with a crime of violence as defined by law, or with production, manufacture, distribution, dispensing, or possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, where the proof is evident and the presumption of guilt is great, the person is not bailable if, after a contradictory hearing, the judge finds by clear and convincing evidence a substantial risk of flight or an imminent danger to another person or the community.

Domestic abuse allegations trigger their own procedure. Under the provision commonly called Gwen’s Law, the court holds a contradictory bail hearing in certain domestic abuse cases and weighs additional factors, including documented history of threats, use of force, or strangulation.

Louisiana’s bail statutes change often. A 2026 act added La. C.Cr.P. art. 312.1, which requires revocation of bail for a person out on bail for a crime of violence, a sex offense, or a firearm offense upon any subsequent felony arrest arising from a separate incident. A further constitutional amendment on post-conviction bail is set for the November 2026 ballot. Confirm the rule that applies to your charge today rather than relying on what happened in someone else’s case a few years ago.

What the Judge Considers When Setting Bail

Bail must be fixed in an amount that will ensure your appearance and the safety of others and the community (La. C.Cr.P. art. 316). The factors include the seriousness of the offense, the weight of the evidence, your prior record, your ability to give bail, the danger posed by your release, whether a firearm or other dangerous weapon was possessed or used, whether you were already out on bail, whether enforceable release conditions are available in the jurisdiction, and the likelihood of further offenses causing harm.

Notice what is absent: guilt or innocence. A bail hearing is not a mini-trial, and a judge setting a high bond has not concluded you did anything.

The Main Types of Release

Louisiana recognizes five statutory types of bail: with a commercial surety, with a secured personal surety, with an unsecured personal surety, without surety, and with a cash deposit. In practice, that comes down to four routes:

• Release on your own recognizance, your written promise to appear, with no payment. Louisiana bars this for a crime of violence and for felonies with a firearm element, and presumes against it in other situations.
• Cash bail, the full amount deposited with the court and returned at final disposition, though it may first be applied to fines, costs, and restitution.
• Commercial surety bond: a bail bond company posts the bond for a non-refundable premium, sometimes with collateral and a contract it can enforce.
• Property bond: a personal surety pledges Louisiana immovable property by mortgage, subject to court approval.

Any of these can come with conditions: no-contact orders, travel limits, curfews, drug testing, firearm restrictions, ignition interlock, or electronic monitoring.

What Happens if You Violate a Condition or Cannot Post Bail

Violating a bail condition is treated as constructive contempt and can result in revocation and a bench warrant, a consequence entirely separate from the underlying charge. If a condition is unclear or impossible to follow (a no-contact order covering someone you live with, a check-in that conflicts with work), raise it with your attorney so it can be modified by motion rather than violated.

If you cannot post bail, you remain in custody while the case proceeds, and the art. 701 charging deadlines become the practical pressure points. Your attorney can move to reduce bail, and in a felony case can request a preliminary examination, which puts the state’s probable cause before a judge and gives the court an occasion to revisit custody. One mechanical point catches families off guard: when a bail order is modified, liability under the previously posted undertaking terminates, a nd a new undertaking must be posted (art. 319). A reduction is not automatically a refund.

What Happens if You Miss a Court Date

If you were properly noticed and fail to appear, the court must immediately issue a warrant for your arrest (La. C.Cr.P. art. 333). A bench warrant does not expire on its own.

The financial consequences run in parallel. Notice goes to you and to any surety, and if you are not surrendered within the statutory window, the prosecuting attorney can seek a judgment of bond forfeiture for the full amount against you and your sureties. A family member who signed for a bond, or property pledged for one, is exposed at that point. Missing court also restricts readmission to bail for certain serious offenses.

If you have already missed a date, the productive step is to have a lawyer move to recall the warrant and reset the matter. Only the issuing court can recall it, and appearing voluntarily through counsel is treated very differently from being picked up on a traffic stop.

How Criminal Charges Are Filed in Louisiana

Police make arrests; prosecutors bring charges. Louisiana law gives the district attorney entire charge and control of every criminal prosecution in the district, including whom, when, and how to prosecute. In Lafayette, Acadia, and Vermilion parishes, that is the district attorney for the Fifteenth Judicial District.

The review that follows an arrest looks at what is provable rather than what was alleged: whether the stop, search, or statement will survive challenge, whether the necessary witnesses are available and credible, what the physical or digital evidence actually shows, and whether the offense booked matches the conduct the evidence supports. This is the stage where defense involvement can matter most and is least visible, because a charge never filed leaves nothing to fight later.

Misdemeanor or Felony

In Louisiana, a felony is an offense that may be punished by death or imprisonment at hard labor; any other offense is a misdemeanor. That line drives nearly everything downstream, which court hears the case, whether a jury is available, the charging deadlines, penalty exposure, and later expungement eligibility.

Venue follows the same divide locally. Felonies arising in Lafayette Parish go to the Fifteenth Judicial District Court. Misdemeanors committed within the Lafayette city limits are generally heard in Lafayette City Court, while misdemeanors arising elsewhere in the parish go to district court. If you are facing a lower-level charge, our page on defending misdemeanor charges in Louisiana covers what that process looks like.

Bill of Information or Grand Jury Indictment

Most charges are filed by a bill of information; a grand jury is constitutionally required only for capital crimes and crimes punishable by life imprisonment. A bill of information is signed and filed by the district attorney, no grand jury, no hearing, no notice to you beforehand.

This matters for a second reason: an indictment narrows the scope of a preliminary examination, as explained below.

The Deadlines for Filing Charges

Two different sets of deadlines operate here, and they are frequently confused.

Custody deadlines (art. 701). If you are continued in custody, an indictment or bill of information must be filed within 30 days of arrest for a misdemeanor and 60 days for a felony, or 120 days for a felony punishable by death or life imprisonment. If you are not in custody, the periods are 90 days for a misdemeanor and 150 days for a felony. (Older blog posts still cite a 45-day misdemeanor period; that figure is out of date.)

What happens if the deadline is missed? The prosecution does not end. After a contradictory hearing with the district attorney, if just cause for the delay is not shown, the remedy is your release from custody or discharge of the bail obligation. The state may still file charges later.

Prescription (art. 572). This is the real outer limit. Prosecution of a noncapital offense must generally be instituted within six years for a felony necessarily punishable at hard labor, four years for other felonies, two years for a misdemeanor punishable by fine or imprisonment, and six months for a misdemeanor punishable only by fine or forfeiture. Crimes punishable by death or life imprisonment have no time limitation, and separate rules extend or interrupt these periods. Whether a period has run depends on the offense, the date of the conduct, and events that may have paused the clock, a question for a lawyer reviewing your file, not a calculation to do from an article.

Why an Arrest Does Not Mean You Will Be Charged

Prosecutors refuse cases. A grand jury can return a “no true bill.” Evidence that looked sufficient at the roadside can fall apart on review. None of that happens visibly, and nobody is obligated to call and tell you the case was dropped.

If you were arrested and heard nothing further, that silence is not a resolution. Have your criminal history checked, confirm the disposition in the clerk’s records, and find out whether the arrest can be expunged; the entry sits on your record until it is.

What Is a Preliminary Examination?

A preliminary examination is a felony hearing at which a judge decides whether probable cause exists to continue holding you. The Louisiana Constitution provides that the right to one shall not be denied in felony cases except when the accused has been indicted by a grand jury, and art. 292 requires the court to order one on request of the state or the defendant unless there has been an indictment. It has no misdemeanor equivalent.

What happens at the hearing. The state must present enough evidence to establish probable cause, usually through the testimony of an investigating officer. Your attorney can cross-examine that witness and put on evidence. The standard is probable cause, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so the hearing is not a preview of the verdict.

What the judge can do. If you have not been indicted and the evidence does not show probable cause for the offense or a lesser included offense, the court orders your release from custody or bail. If you are held on a finding of probable cause, the court fixes bail if you are entitled to it. Where a grand jury has already indicted, the hearing is limited to perpetuating testimony and fixing bail.

Why it can be valuable. The strategic benefit is often independent of the ruling: the hearing puts an officer’s account on the record under oath, months before trial, which can expose gaps in the basis for a stop or inconsistencies with the written report. It also has costs; it can prompt the state to lock in a stronger version of its case. A release for lack of probable cause is not an acquittal and does not bar the state from proceeding later. Whether to request one is a case-specific judgment for your attorney.

What Happens at an Arraignment?

At arraignment, the formal charge is read, and you enter a plea. Once a bill of information or indictment is filed, the district attorney must set the matter for arraignment within 30 days unless just cause for a longer delay is shown.

The Pleas You Can Enter

Louisiana recognizes four pleas: guilty; not guilty; not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity; and nolo contendere, which a court may accept in its discretion and only in non-capital cases.

Two points about nolo contendere are widely misunderstood. A sentence imposed on such a plea is a conviction; it can count as a prior conviction for multiple-offense purposes and counts as a conviction under the driver’s license laws. And a “not guilty” plea can be changed to “not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity” within ten days after arraignment; after that, only for good cause shown and before trial begins.

What Happens After a Not Guilty Plea

The case moves into the pretrial phase, and motion deadlines begin to run. Under the current version of art. 521, pretrial motions must generally be made or filed within 30 days after receipt of initial discovery, unless a different time is provided by law or fixed by the court on a showing of good cause. (Sources citing “15 days after arraignment” are quoting the pre-2020 rule.)

How Arraignment Differs From the Initial Appearance

The initial appearance happens within days of arrest, before charges exist, and deals with rights, counsel, and bail. Arraignment happens after the district attorney has filed a charging document, and is where that specific charge is answered.

The gap between them can be weeks or months. During it, the charge can change; a booked offense can be filed as something more serious, something less serious, or not filed at all.

The Pretrial Process

Most Louisiana criminal cases are won, lost, or resolved during the pretrial phase, not at trial. This is where evidence is exchanged, constitutional challenges are heard, and nearly all negotiation happens.

Discovery

Louisiana’s discovery articles give the defense access to categories of material including your own statements, documents and tangible objects relevant to the case, results of scientific tests, expert reports, and information about prior convictions the state may use. Separately, federal constitutional law obligates the prosecution to disclose evidence favorable to the accused that is material to guilt or punishment.

What arrives in the first packet is rarely the whole picture. Body camera footage, dispatch audio, in-car video, lab bench notes, phone extraction reports, and civilian witness identities often have to be requested specifically. Initial discovery also starts the 30-day motion clock, which is a reason to review it immediately.

Pretrial Motions

Motions do different jobs:

• Motion to quash attacks the charging document or raises a legal bar such as prescription or double jeopardy.
• Motion for a bill of particulars forces the state to state the nature and cause of the charge more specifically.
• Motion to suppress seeks to exclude evidence obtained unconstitutionally.
• Motions in limine address what the jury may hear.

Rulings on these motions frequently decide cases without a trial, because they change what the state can actually prove.

Challenging an Unlawful Stop, Search, or Statement

Under art. 703, a defendant adversely affected may move to suppress evidence that was unconstitutionally obtained, and may move on any constitutional ground to suppress a confession or statement.

The burden allocation is more favorable than most people assume. Generally, the defendant must prove the ground of the motion, but the state bears the burden of proving the admissibility of a confession or statement, or of any evidence seized without a warrant. Because a great many arrests involve warrantless searches and roadside statements, that puts real work on the prosecution.

You may also testify in support of a suppression motion without being subject to examination on other matters, and that testimony cannot be used by the state except to attack your credibility if you testify at trial.

Plea Negotiations and Pretrial Conferences

Negotiations are driven by what each side thinks a trial would produce: whether the search or statement survives, whether a key witness appears and holds up, what the lab reports, your record, and the office’s position on the offense category. That is why negotiation and motion practice are not alternatives; an offer before a suppression hearing and an offer after an adverse ruling for the state are often different offers.

A pretrial conference is a status setting where the court, the prosecutor, and defense counsel address whether discovery is complete, whether motions are pending, and whether the case will resolve or be set for trial. Practice varies between judicial districts and even between divisions of the same court. Your attendance is usually required, and missing it carries the same bench warrant consequence as any other setting.

How a Louisiana Criminal Case Can End Without a Trial

Most cases end without a trial, through a declination, a dismissal, an amended charge, diversion, or a negotiated plea.

No Charges Filed

The district attorney may simply decline to prosecute. Nothing is filed, and nothing is announced. The arrest record remains until expunged.

Dismissal

The district attorney may dismiss an indictment, information, or a count without the court’s consent, either orally in open court or by written statement filed with the clerk. This is what people mean when they say charges were “dropped,” or refer to a nolle prosequi. Charges can also be dismissed by the court on a successful motion to quash.

A dismissal is not always permanent. Where a prosecution was timely instituted and is dismissed by the district attorney with the defendant’s consent, or before the first witness is sworn, a new prosecution on the same facts may be instituted within the ordinary prescriptive period or within six months of the dismissal, whichever is longer, unless the state cannot show the dismissal was not aimed at avoiding trial deadlines.

A dismissal is not an acquittal. An acquittal is a verdict of not guilty after trial and ends the matter permanently.

Reduced or Amended Charges

A charge can be amended to a lesser offense, or a felony filed as a misdemeanor. The difference is not only sentence exposure. It changes whether a jury is available, whether the conviction carries hard labor, professional licensing and immigration consequences, firearm eligibility, and expungement eligibility. When weighing a reduced charge, ask specifically what it does to your record five years out, not just what it does to the sentence.

Negotiated Pleas

A guilty plea waives the trial, the right to confront witnesses, the right to remain silent at trial, and most appellate challenges to the facts. Before accepting a felony plea, the court must address you personally in open court and confirm you understand the nature of the charge, the sentencing exposure, and the rights you are giving up.

Take that colloquy seriously rather than treating it as a script. If an answer you are about to give is not actually true, you do not understand a term, or someone promised you something not stated in court, say so at the hearing. Correcting it afterward is far harder.

Diversion and Deferred Dispositions

The Fifteenth Judicial District Attorney’s Office operates a pretrial intervention program for Lafayette, Acadia, and Vermilion parishes, generally aimed at people with little or no record facing non-violent charges. Completion typically means the charge is not prosecuted, and successful completion of a pretrial diversion program is one of the grounds on which Louisiana allows expungement of an arrest record. Eligibility and fees are set by the district attorney’s office, and acceptance is discretionary.

The courts also have statutory mechanisms with a similar effect. Under art. 894, a court may suspend imposition of sentence on many misdemeanor convictions, place the defendant on probation, and on successful completion set aside the conviction and dismiss the prosecution. Art. 893 provides an analogous deferral in certain first-offense felony cases, with significant statutory exclusions crimes of violence, specified sex offenses, and some drug offenses among them. The Fifteenth Judicial District also operates specialty dockets including drug court, sobriety court, mental health court, and re-entry court.

These paths carry conditions, costs, and exclusions, and taking one usually requires admitting facts. Ask about them early, because eligibility can close once a case reaches certain stages.

How the Outcome Affects Your Record

Expungement eligibility is driven by the disposition, and it is never automatic. An arrest that did not result in a conviction can be expunged where you were not prosecuted and prescription has run, where the district attorney declined to prosecute for any reason (including completion of pretrial diversion), where the case ended in dismissal, a granted motion to quash, or acquittal, or after a judicial determination of factual innocence.

Convictions are harder. A misdemeanor conviction may generally be expunged if it was set aside and dismissed under art. 894, or if more than five years have passed since completion of sentence, probation, or parole with no felony conviction in that period and no pending felony charge. Louisiana excludes certain misdemeanor convictions entirely, including domestic abuse battery and stalking. Felony expungement follows its own article and longer waiting periods. Louisiana has enacted an automated expungement provision, but it is not yet in effect; for now, someone has to file. Our page on clearing a Louisiana record through expungement explains what that involves.

What Happens if Your Case Goes to Trial

At trial, the state must prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt, and the defense is not required to prove anything.

Judge or Jury

Whether you get a jury, and how many jurors, depends on the penalty the offense carries. A capital case is tried by twelve jurors who must all concur. An offense necessarily punishable at hard labor is tried by twelve, all of whom must concur for offenses committed on or after January 1, 2019. An offense that may be punished at hard labor is tried by six jurors, all of whom must concur. Lower-level misdemeanors, where no jury right attaches, are tried by the judge alone.

Because the unanimity rule turns on the date of the offense, cases involving pre-2019 conduct raise questions worth raising specifically with counsel. Trial by jury may be knowingly and intelligently waived except in capital cases; whether to waive is a strategic decision, not a preference to settle in advance.

Evidence, Witnesses, and Verdict

The state presents its case first. The defense may cross-examine each witness, object to inadmissible evidence, and present evidence of its own, or present none, since the burden never shifts. You have the right not to testify, and no adverse inference may be drawn from that choice.

The jury (or judge) returns a verdict of guilty, not guilty, or guilty of a lesser included offense. An acquittal ends the matter. A guilty verdict is followed by judgment and then sentencing, with post-verdict motions available in between.

Sentencing

Four numbers get conflated in discussions of sentencing, and keeping them separate matters: the statutory maximum the legislature set; the mandatory minimum, where one exists; the range the court is choosing within; and the sentence actually imposed, which for most offenses falls well short of the maximum.

Enhancements can move the range; Louisiana’s habitual offender law increases exposure based on qualifying prior felony convictions. A statutory maximum is not a prediction. Sentences may also carry consequences beyond incarceration: fines, court costs, restitution, probation or parole conditions, license consequences, and registration requirements for certain offenses.

Appeals and Post-Conviction Options

A motion for appeal must be made no later than 30 days after rendition of the judgment or ruling appealed from, or 30 days from a ruling on a timely motion to reconsider sentence. An appeal reviews legal errors in the record; it is not a new trial and generally cannot introduce new evidence.

Post-conviction relief is separate and addresses claims outside the appellate record, such as ineffective assistance of counsel or newly discovered evidence. Article 930.8 bars an application filed more than two years after the judgment of conviction and sentence becomes final, subject to specific statutory exceptions.

Both deadlines are short and both are easy to lose through inaction. Have the calculation done by counsel against the actual dates in your record.

What to Do While Your Case Is Pending

• Follow every release condition exactly. Treat each one as a court order, because it is. Do not leave the state without written permission, and do not assume a no-contact order relaxes because the other person contacts you first. If a condition is unworkable, have your lawyer move to modify it.
• Track every court date. Write down each date when you receive it and confirm it with your attorney’s office. Notices go to the address on file, so update it with the court and your bonding company immediately if you move. A missed date triggers a mandatory bench warrant.
• Preserve documents and messages. Save receipts, photographs, texts, call logs, timestamps, medical records, and employment records. Do not delete anything related to the case, even if it seems unhelpful; deletion creates its own problem. Give copies to your attorney rather than holding the only version.
• Stay off social media about your case. Posts, comments, stories, and direct messages are obtainable and get used. Do not post about the incident, the charge, the court, or the alleged victim, and do not let friends post on your behalf.
• Keep your attorney informed. Report a new arrest or citation, contact from police or investigators, contact from the other party, changes in address or employment, travel needs, and anything you receive in the mail about the case.

Terms You Will Hear in a Louisiana Criminal Case

Frequently Asked Questions

Talk to a Lafayette Criminal Defense Attorney

The Louisiana criminal process is built around deadlines and decision points, and most of the ones that matter arrive early: the 72-hour appearance, the charging decision, the window to request a preliminary examination, the motion deadline that starts running when discovery arrives. Once those pass, the options narrow.

If you or a family member has been arrested in Lafayette or elsewhere in Acadiana, Sorkow Law can review what happened during the stop, the search, and the arrest, explain what the state would have to prove, and identify which options are realistically open. The firm was founded by attorney Benjamin Sorkow and has served clients in Louisiana courts since 2022, handling criminal defense matters including DUI and OWI charges, drug charges, domestic violence allegations, misdemeanors, forfeitures, and expungements.