Central Judicial Processing Court-CJP Court
Attorney Ron Bar-Nadav 201-525-1555
Your appearance in the County CJP Court, also called NJ Central Judicial Processing Court, is perhaps the single most important date in all of your criminal court case proceedings. CJP courts resolve certain criminal cases, can remand certain criminal cases back to the NJ Municipal Court, or can send your criminal case forward to the Grand Jury process. Additionally, if you case can be resolved pre-indictment, your case could be scheduled for EDC or Early Disposition Calendar. There is also the possibility that your criminal defense lawyer can present information to the prosecutor who has the authority to also dismiss your case.
Regardless of which direction the criminal case takes, this is the first real opportunity for your lawyer to speak to the County Prosecutor who is assigned to the case. This is an extremely important event because your attorney may be able to influence the Prosecutor in choosing the direction for your case. It is a mistake not to have an attorney with you at any of the Court assigned dates.
How important is CJP Court. In the Superior Court, the fines and possibility of doing real jail time is immense. If your criminal defense attorney can get the criminal case remanded back to the Municipal Court where the charge arises from, you may be in the best position to limit your potential criminal liability. Many times criminal defense lawyers are able to influence the Prosecutors decision and bring out many facts of the case the State was otherwise not ware of. Don’t trust your future to luck. You need to bring your criminal defense lawyer with you to every stage of the criminal court proceedings.
According to the New Jersey Court Rules, all criminal indictable offense, which include all First Degree charges, Second Degree charges, Third Degree charges, and Fourth Degree charges at to first be presented to the criminal defendant in the CJP Court. In the Central Judicial Processing Court, the judge will also advise the defendants of all the indictable criminal charges the defendant is charged with. Additionally, the judge will inform in the defendant that they have constitutional rights and will review certain constitution rights with each defendant.
Can the CJP Court modify a defendant’s bail at the NJ Central Judicial Processing Court hearing? Yes. The Judge at the CJP court does have the authority to charge or otherwise modify the defendants bail. However, most court prefer to handle bail hearing in a separate hearing called a Bail Modification Hearing. Still, during the CJP hearing, your attorney may present information or facts that the CJP would otherwise not have known. That information, may influence the CJP judge to modify the bail or lower the bail amount.
According to the New Jersey Court rules, a criminal defendant must see a judge with 72 hours of their initial arrest. If the offense is indictable, or if the defendant is incarcerated, that appearance will generally be covered in the CJP Court. Before NJ instituted the Central Judicial Processing Court, these hearings were held at all the local municipal courts. With the new Central Judicial Processing Courts, the process of the First Appearance has become consolidated. Indeed the system moves much quicker for most defendants, and the new change has made the Criminal courts more efficient. Keep in mind that while many of our NJ Municipal Courts meet once, twice, and some more often every week, other more rural New Jersey municipal courts only met once or twice per month. Especially for the court jurisdictions that met infrequently, CJP Courts have been most beneficial.
If you are charged with a crime or criminal charges in Bergen County, Hudson, County, Passaic County, Union County or any other County in New Jersey, please call the Law Offices of Ron Bar-Nadav today at 201-525-1555 to schedule an appointment as soon as possible. REMEMBER that CJP COURT is usually scheduled with two week of the initial arrest in New Jersey. That means you have very little time to meet with the criminal defense lawyer and get prepared for the CJP court hearing.
