A day in the life of a criminal defense lawyer can change before the first cup of coffee is finished. On a recent Tuesday, my schedule for the day was turned upside down somewhere right after I settled in to get some much needed paperwork and thinking time done.
The day began around 5:00 a.m., which is not all that unusual for me. I like the quiet hours of the morning, before the sun has made an appearance. I start the coffee for me and my wife, read new appellate opinions, review files, write legal materials, and think through what the day and the rest of the week may bring. Before the phones begin ringing off the hook and the courthouse fills with law enforcement, judges, prosecutors, witnesses, and defense lawyers, there is time to concentrate and just think without distractions.
| Court Settings in North Carolina |
How the Court Sessions Can Work and What It Means |
| Mecklenburg Administrative Criminal Court |
Courtrooms such as 1130 and 1150 handle misdemeanor and traffic administration, first appearances, and felony administrative matters. The appearance may address custody, scheduling, or case management rather than a contested trial. |
| Mecklenburg trial courtroom “A” session |
The morning calendar in a fourth-floor trial courtroom, such as 4150A, 4170A, or 4310A. It usually begins at 9:00 a.m. and runs to about noon. |
| Mecklenburg trial courtroom “B” session |
A different afternoon calendar assigned to the same physical courtroom. It usually begins at 1:30 p.m. and may continue to about 5:00 p.m. |
| Surrounding county district courts |
One session that begins in the morning and continues through the day. A case may not be reached until afternoon even though everyone reports for the morning calendar call. |
| Superior Court |
A criminal session may open in the morning and run through the week. Felony trials, misdemeanor appeals, arraignments, and pleas follow a separate schedule that may include assigned time slots within the term. |
To be fair, my work does not really begin at 5:00 a.m. Preparation for a criminal defense case starts weeks, and sometimes months, earlier. Defense lawyers review the charging documents, available discovery, witness statements, body-camera video, photographs, law enforcement summaries and police narratives, and case file materials that may be part of our defense strategy in the case. For district court criminal charges, there isn’t a lot of legal research or case law that is required, but on occasion it doesn’t hurt to take a look at the most recent probable cause decisions or an interesting NC Court of Appeals ruling. Long before the morning of court, we’ve reviewed the essential elements of the charge against the likely evidence at trial. We consider, weigh, and then reconsider potential evidentiary issues, key questions to ask on cross, defenses, and possible resolutions well before anyone walks into a courtroom. That’s very much part of being in a “learned profession.” We’re always thinking and planning, getting ready for sudden changes, new evidence, and anticipating the expected unexpected twists and turns of court.
Preparation does not always mean predicting one path and hoping the case follows it. Quite the contrary is true for defense lawyers. It means preparing for several different pathways. A case may be continued to another date, or negotiated for deferred prosecution or some other sort of conditional discharge; a charge might be dismissed; and if the allegations cannot be resolved by a non-trial disposition, there might be motions or a bench trial on the case-in-chief before a District Court Judge. A witness may appear who was not expected. Evidence may be admitted or excluded. The judge may ask a question that brings an issue into focus. A proposal that made sense the previous week may look different after everyone arrives in court.
Our standard preparation also includes confirming court logistics and sending multiple reminders before a scheduled appearance, even though that’s the client’s responsibility. Indeed, in North Carolina, judges expect the accused to keep up with court dates and independently confirm their hearing dates and settings, understanding they’re the ones ultimately responsible for keeping track of everything. A lawyer can research every legal issue, organize the evidence, and plan witness examinations. None of it helps if the client is not standing beside the lawyer when the case is called. That is why our office sends repeated reminders, reminds clients to double-check court dates on the NC Odyssey portal in case something gets moved without notice (that happens all the time BTW), and regularly deals with what can happen after a missed court date.
A Day in the Life of a Criminal Defense Lawyer Begins Before Court
When I sat down with my coffee, I knew two trials in another jurisdiction wouldn’t be called before 2:00 p.m. At least that’s what we had been told. Indeed, at the last trial setting, the judge, the assistant district attorney, and our firm had agreed that the lawyers and witnesses involved in those trials would report for an afternoon trial at 2:00 p.m., with the case being marked with some level of priority. That arrangement is both common and makes sense for the legal profession. In that jurisdiction, mornings tend to focus on administrative matters, guilty pleas, bond hearings, probation violation hearings, continuances and setting dates for trials, first appearances, addressing legal counsel, and other legal issues that may need to be handled before the trial calendar begins.
With some exceptions, North Carolina district court handles misdemeanors and infractions. District Court criminal trials proceed without a jury. De Novo appeals to Superior Court therefore preserve the right to a trial by jury in North Carolina. It’s important to understand how many matters may be scheduled in the same courtroom on the same morning. In a big jurisdiction like Charlotte, it’s fair to say there are a lot. Obviously, some cases take only a few minutes of court time. Others sometimes require testimony, legal arguments, maybe an interpreter, collecting additional paperwork and evidence, require legal filings, or more time for the parties to speak and possibly negotiate a non-trial disposition or plea. A case that appeared likely to resolve may become contested. A matter expected to take an hour may take three.
Still, relative to my morning, we had been told, months and months in advance, “Everyone be here at 2:00 p.m.” That allows the court to use the morning for matters that could be completed before the trials began. It allows the officers to avoid sitting in the courthouse all day. It allows defense lawyers to plan their morning around client calls, file review, paperwork, and other work that doesn’t disappear just because a trial is scheduled later in the day. And despite that clear admonition, that plan went sideways around 7:00 a.m. the day of court.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Criminal Court Sessions Work Differently
The reason a 2:00 p.m. trial arrangement deserves some level of explanation is that a “session of court” doesn’t always work the same way in every county around Charlotte.
Many, if not the majority, of the district criminal courtrooms in the Charlotte metropolitan region operate as one all-day session. Court begins in the morning, the calendar is called (like high school roll call), and the courtroom continues working until the cases that can be addressed that day are finished. A lawyer may know that a trial is unlikely to begin until the afternoon, but the session itself begins in the morning and court never formally stops being in the same session.
Mecklenburg County, which is in North Carolina’s 26th Judicial District, is different. Its size and caseloads require a more divided, if not somewhat more complicated, case calendaring structure. There are administrative criminal courtrooms, including Courtrooms 1130 and 1150, that perform functions different from an ordinary misdemeanor trial courtroom. Courtroom 1130 handles misdemeanor and traffic administration. Courtroom 1150 is used for first appearances and felony administrative matters. Those courtrooms manage large numbers of cases, address custody and scheduling issues, and move files toward the next appropriate stage.
The ordinary district criminal trial courtrooms on the fourth floor include Courtrooms 4150, 4170, and 4310. Other courtrooms exist, and lots of different types of cases, both civil and criminal, are also heard in the building. The official Mecklenburg County Courthouse building guide provides a useful floor-by-floor reference, and we’ve written separately about why Charlotte-Mecklenburg misdemeanor charges may take time to reach trial.
Trial courtrooms in Charlotte generally operate with two sessions each day. The “A” designation identifies the morning session. Courtroom 4150A means the morning session in Courtroom 4150. It generally begins at 9:00 a.m. and runs until about noon. The “B” designation identifies the afternoon session. Courtroom 4150B generally begins at 1:30 p.m. and may continue until about 5:00 p.m. The same A-and-B structure is also used in Courtrooms 4170 and 4310. One judge and one courtroom can address one group of cases in the morning and a different group in the afternoon, and lawyers, officers, witnesses, and clients receive a more defined reporting period than an all-day calendar provides.
That is the general structure, not a guarantee that a particular case will begin at a particular minute. Courtroom assignments, judicial schedules, special proceedings, closures, and local administrative practices can change. The Judicial Branch publishes current Mecklenburg County schedules and calendars, but even a published calendar cannot account for every development inside a courtroom. Things change. Things change all the time in the Mecklenburg County judicial system.
District criminal courts in Iredell County, in Mooresville and Statesville, as well as in Union, Lincoln, and Gaston counties, commonly use an all-day model. Court begins in the morning and continues through lunch and into the afternoon as needed. Local trial settings and hearings can change, but regionally, Mecklenburg’s two-session trial calendar is something of an outlier.
That difference matters to lawyers who practice in several counties. A Charlotte lawyer may have a 4150B setting that creates a fairly clear afternoon schedule and appearance. The same lawyer may also have a case in an adjoining county where the client and lawyer must appear for the morning calendar call, even when the common practice is that trials are often handled in the afternoon, after lunch. The date may be clearly posted on the court system calendar. How things actually work out can be substantially different in practice.
Clients are not always given the flexibility that may be extended to an officer or lawyer. In an all-day court, a defendant is generally expected to be present for the morning calendar call and remain available until excused. That is not done to make the process difficult. The judge and prosecutor need to know whether the defendant is present and whether the case can proceed before asking officers and civilian witnesses to wait or return for a trial. A missing defendant can change the court’s plan for everyone involved.
As such, someone charged with a criminal offense (the defendant) should never assume that an anticipated afternoon trial excuses a morning appearance. Unless the court (the Judge) gives different instructions, the listed reporting time controls. What looks like an unnecessary morning in court may be the court’s way of determining which cases are truly ready to be heard.
Superior Court adds another layer of complexity. North Carolina Superior Court handles felony criminal cases and misdemeanor de novo appeals from District Court. A criminal session may begin in the morning and continue throughout the week. That does not mean every case begins when the weekly session opens. Cases still must be ordered, witnesses coordinated, pleas addressed, and trials placed where they fit. In Mecklenburg County, a matter may also receive an assigned plea or arraignment time in Administrative Court, which is often in Courtroom 5310 on the 5th Floor fo the Mecklenburg County Courthouse. Lincoln County also uses assigned Superior Court slots for some matters.
All of that also involves the ordinary uncertainty of testimony, negotiations, witness availability, and the time another case may require. “Court at 9:00” can describe an all-day district session, a Mecklenburg A session, the opening of a week-long Superior Court term, or a specific procedural setting. The concept may seem simple enough. The scheduling system behind it is, by no means, simple.
Against that background, the prior 2:00 p.m. trial setting made sense in a one-session jurisdiction. The court could use the morning for administrative matters, pleas, and bond hearings, then bring in the trial participants for the afternoon. Everyone had a reason to rely on that plan.
Out of an abundance of caution, early that morning I sent the prosecutor a brief message to check in and confirm whether the officer would be available for trial.
The response changed the day. The court had decided to operate two district court sessions, and our case might be called that morning despite the 2:00 p.m. setting we had previously set.
There went my morning.
There is a meaningful difference between planning to try a case at some point and learning that the case may be called within hours. Trial preparation is never finished in the absolute sense. Once a case may be reached, the lawyer must stop working from a general plan and prepare to make immediate decisions in a courtroom.
So I poured my coffee, made sure to add more, put it in a travel mug, threw on a suit, gathered my files and what I needed, and headed to court.
North Carolina Criminal Court Schedules Can Change Throughout the Day
I arrived early. I prefer to be there, in court, just in case something changes. Once I arrived, the anticipated starting time began moving in half-hour increments. Which, to be fair, I knew in my heart would happen. Defense lawyers’ calendars and plans are not high on the priority list in criminal court in North Carolina. First, we were told we’d start at 11:00 a.m. Then 11:30. Then noon. Then 12:30. The court broke for lunch and told us to come back at 2:00 p.m. During lunch, word came that the trial would not begin until 2:30.
At about 3:00 p.m., the trial finally began. It continued until at least 4:30. That’s not just normal. It’s what we anticipated. It’s what we advised clients to expect.
Every new start time was close enough that we had to stay ready and close by. In those types of situations, there is no meaningful opportunity to leave, settle into another complicated file, or begin work that requires uninterrupted attention. The client lives with the same uncertainty. Hurry up and wait in court. Wait some more. Receive another time. Wait again. Then be prepared to try the case without hesitation when the judge is ready.
The repeated delays do not mean that anyone is trying to be difficult. A courtroom has more moving parts than the people waiting in the gallery can see. A defendant may be in custody and need to be transported. A witness may be delayed. Another case may require an unexpected hearing. A plea may take longer because the judge must address an issue before accepting it. Lawyers may be working through a final dispute that could resolve a case without trial. The court also has obligations to everyone else whose name appears on the calendar.
That does not make the waiting convenient. It does help explain why a time printed on a calendar cannot always function like a medical appointment or a business meeting.
We have written before about how court is scheduled in North Carolina. Under N.C.G.S. § 7A-61, the district attorney prepares the criminal trial dockets. The judge controls the proceedings in the courtroom. Those responsibilities operate within a system in which cases resolve, expand, or encounter problems throughout the day.
The North Carolina Judicial Branch court-date search can confirm the listed date, time, and location of a court appearance. It cannot promise when a particular case will actually be heard. The distinction can be frustrating, but it is real.
What a Criminal Defense Lawyer Does While Waiting for Trial
Waiting in court is not downtime. A lawyer never gets to completely relax. Defense attorneys generally can’t start another task that would make it hard to shift back into trial mode. The file stays open. The evidence remains close. The order of witnesses, the disputed facts, and the legal issues keep running in the lawyer’s mind.
| What a Client May See |
What the Defense Lawyer Is Actually Doing |
| Sitting in the courtroom |
Taking the temperature of the Court. Monitoring the order of cases and the Court’s rulings, listening for the case to be called, tracking witness availability, and reviewing the trial plan. |
| Another delayed starting time |
Updating the client and the office, preserving readiness, and deciding what other work can be addressed during the delay. |
| A brief recess |
Responding to limited office matters without losing concentration on the testimony, evidence, and legal questions ahead. |
| The case is finally called |
Moving immediately from waiting into witness examination, evidentiary objections, legal argument, and decisions that may affect the outcome. |
Trial readiness is partly intellectual and partly mental discipline. The lawyer does their best to remain engaged without ignoring other important matters. That is harder than it sounds. Repeated interruptions leave mental residue. Each call, email, and unrelated problem occupies part of the attention that must later return to the case being tried.
Once the case begins, the waiting ceases to matter. A district court trial is not a rehearsal merely because there is no jury. The State presents evidence. Witnesses testify. The defense may cross-examine them, object to evidence, make motions, offer evidence, and argue whether the State has proven every element beyond a reasonable doubt. The judge serves as the finder of fact and decides the verdict.
There is no extra credit for having waited patiently since morning. When the case is called, the defense lawyer is ready.
What to Expect on a North Carolina Criminal Court Date
A scheduled court time ordinarily tells the parties when they must be available. It does not necessarily establish when testimony will begin or when the case will conclude. For someone who rarely enters a courthouse, that difference may prove to be more than a bit annoying. In ordinary life, a 10:00 appointment generally means something will happen reasonably close to 10:00. Criminal court does not always operate that way. In fact, sometimes it seems, more often than not, plans and schedules are more of a suggestion than set time. Of course, that’s true unless the defendant is late or misses the appearance entirely. While there is a certain amount of latitude necessary in our system of justice, that is not necessarily afforded to a defendant facing criminal charges. Bad things can happen if you’re late. Orders for Arrest may be issued. Bonds may be forfeited. That’s one reason, of many, we tell clients to be in the courthouse at least one hour before the setting is scheduled to begin. If you court opens at 9:00 a.m., be there at 8:00 a.m. Plan for bad traffic, wrecks, parking issues, time getting through security at the courthouse, finding a seat, using the bathroom, etc. Put simply, DO NOT BE LATE.
A court date may require planning for most or all of the day. Work, parking, transportation, medication, meals, and family responsibilities should be arranged before arriving. It’s better not to park roadside and instead find a parking deck that doesn’t have a time limit. Courthouse rules differ, including rules governing phones and electronic devices. The safest source for current logistical information is the county’s official Judicial Branch information.
Arriving early does not guarantee an early departure. Arriving late can create a far more serious problem. A case may be called once, passed briefly, or addressed while other matters are moving. Leaving the courthouse without communicating with counsel can create confusion at the precise moment the case is reached. That is why the reminders described earlier are not busywork. They protect the client from an avoidable failure to appear and keep the legal team informed. The court system has little ability to account for the text someone overlooked, the calendar entry made incorrectly, or the assumption that an afternoon setting eliminates any reason to be available earlier. Cases are regularly “held over” from a morning session until an afternoon session of court.
That uncertainty clearly affects clients emotionally. Waiting for a criminal case to be called is not the same as waiting for an ordinary appointment. It’s normal to be thinking about a driver’s license, employment, family, reputation, or the possibility of jail. Every delay extends the period before you know what will happen next.
Criminal Defense Work Continues While the Lawyer Is in Court
The rest of a defense attorney’s practice does not stop because one lawyer is sitting in a courtroom. Staff members continue answering calls, monitoring deadlines, collecting documents, communicating scheduling information, and moving other files forward. Other clients still have questions. New evidence may arrive. Another court may need paperwork. A family may call about someone who has just been arrested and wants to see if they can get a bond hearing.
This is one reason a team matters. At Powers Law Firm, from the outset we advise clients of our collaborative, team approach. A criminal defense practice cannot function as though every task begins and ends with the lawyer standing in court. Legal assistants and other lawyers at the firm help maintain communication and continuity when a trial consumes the day and takes a single lawyer out of that mix. We recognize which cases require immediate attention and which can wait until the lawyer is no longer preparing to question a witness.
The challenge is deciding what can be addressed without compromising readiness for the case at hand. A short logistical answer may be manageable. A complicated legal analysis likely is not. Beginning a detailed review of another file ten minutes before trial does not serve either client well.
That is not a complaint. It is a description of the work.
I am more patient about these things than I was as a young lawyer. At least I try to be. Experience does not make the day less chaotic. It helps me recognize that the chaos is rarely about me.
Why Criminal Defense Practice Requires Patience With People
The easiest mistake would be to make every inconvenience personal. Most of the time, it is not.
For the lawyer, a court date may be one entry on a crowded calendar. For the client, it may be the largest event of the year, if not their life, for certain serious felony charges. Stress affects how people listen, remember, communicate, and react. Court instructions that seem routine to those who work in the system can be difficult to absorb when so much appears to be at stake. Repetition, calm explanation, and patience are part of the representation.
More than 34 years ago, on my first day practicing law, I was given three pieces of advice that have stayed with me. First, defense lawyers should understand, early on, that there is a reason people are in the court system. Second, that reason may involve poor judgment, immaturity, substance abuse, untreated mental illness, fear, anger, self-centered behavior, bad luck, or one bad decision. Third, whatever brought them there, they come to a lawyer when they need help.
More than 34 years of criminal courtroom work have reinforced that advice. During that time, I have tried cases across North Carolina, served as president of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, taught and hosted continuing legal education programs, and worked with lawyers, judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers on criminal justice issues. None of that makes a court calendar predictable. It does help me remain ready and keep the day’s frustrations in perspective.
Patience does not mean passivity. It does not require a lawyer or staff member to accept abusive treatment. It means separating urgency from noise, identifying the legal problem beneath the emotion, and refusing to let irritation interfere with professional judgment.
Sometimes that begins with taking a breath and explaining the same point again. Sometimes it means listening past the emotion to find the real concern. Sometimes it requires setting a reasonable boundary and then returning attention to the work that brought the client to the office in the first place.
The criminal court system deals with human behavior at its least orderly. Expecting every participant to communicate perfectly, arrive emotionally composed, and respond rationally to uncertainty is, quite simply, unrealistic. The lawyer’s role includes bringing order to that disorder without becoming part of it.
Courtroom Experience Means Preparing for Uncertainty
Courtroom experience is not limited to knowing how to question a witness or make an objection. Frankly, knowing the law is the easy part. More than thirty years of duking it out in court has helped develop my patience level when the schedule changes, the evidence changes, and the expected issue turns out to be entirely irrelevant.
A lawyer who prepares for only one outcome may be left without a workable plan when circumstances change. A lawyer who understands the file, the governing law, and the available options can more easily adapt without abandoning the defense. Flexibility is not improvisation without preparation. It is what preparation makes possible.
Experience also teaches respect for the people who keep the system running. Courtroom clerks, bailiffs, judges, prosecutors, interpreters, law enforcement officers, other defense lawyers, and courthouse staff are all managing competing obligations. Courtesy does not require agreement. It does make it easier to obtain reliable information, address problems, and move a case forward when the schedule changes.
After decades in court, I still cannot tell a client exactly when a case will be called merely because a time appears on the calendar. I can explain the process, prepare the case, and remain ready when the court reaches it. That is less satisfying than a guaranteed schedule, but it is honest.
Frequently Asked Questions About North Carolina Criminal Court Dates
Why does my North Carolina court date say 9:00 a.m. if my case will not be heard until the afternoon?
A North Carolina criminal court date lists the time the session opens and the time the court expects the parties to be available, not the time a particular case will be reached. In an all-day district court session, the judge and prosecutor use the morning calendar call to confirm who is present and which cases are ready before deciding how the day and trial schedule will develop.
What is the difference between Courtroom 4150A and 4150B in Charlotte?
Courtroom 4150A refers to the morning session in Courtroom 4150 at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse, which generally runs from 9:00 a.m. until about noon. Courtroom 4150B refers to the afternoon session in the same courtroom, which generally begins at 1:30 p.m. The same A-and-B structure may apply to Courtrooms 4170 and 4310. A defendant with a pending criminal case should confirm the correct courtroom and session before the appearance.
What happens if I leave court before my case is called in North Carolina?
Leaving court before the case is called can result in the case being called in the defendant’s absence, which may lead to a failure to appear, an order for arrest, and additional consequences depending on the charge. A defendant who must step out of the courtroom for any reason should ask counsel first and make certain they’re immediately available. Our office maintains a separate explanation of what may happen after a missed court date in North Carolina.
How long should I plan to be at court for a misdemeanor case in Charlotte or a surrounding county?
Planning for a misdemeanor court date in the Charlotte area generally means reserving the full session, and in an all-day county courtroom that may mean the entire day. Arrange work schedules, transportation, child care, and medication with that possibility in mind.
The Practice of Criminal Law Can Be Slow and Suddenly Fast
Real law is messy. At times it can be both complicated and convoluted. It also can be painfully slow and startlingly fast. The legal problem rarely arrives on its own.
By breakfast, the Tuesday I had planned no longer existed. By late morning, each anticipated starting time had moved another half hour. By the afternoon, all that waiting gave way to trial. Meanwhile, the rest of the practice kept moving, whether I was sitting in a courtroom or not.
None of that made the day extraordinary. It made it Tuesday.
The day began with coffee, legal research, and file review at 5:00 a.m. It continued through a changing court schedule, hours of waiting, and a trial that did not begin until roughly 3:00 p.m. Somewhere between those points, I remembered the advice I received when I started practicing.
The client is not coming to court because this is an ordinary day. The client is there because, for that client, it may be anything but ordinary.
And that’s part of the job and a day in the life of a criminal defense lawyer in North Carolina.
Charlotte Criminal Defense Lawyer Ready When the Case Is Called
Powers Law Firm helps clients facing select criminal charges in Charlotte and throughout Mecklenburg, Union, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, and Rowan counties. The firm also travels for certain matters across North Carolina on a case-by-case basis. If you need help understanding a charge, a court date, or what may happen next, Powers Law Firm may be available to help. Call 704-342-4357 or contact the firm to arrange a confidential consultation.
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