111th Street Branch Court

SEXNER’S PRO LEGAL TIP: If you and your attorney decide that you don’t wish to enter into a plea negotiation on your case, then your case will be heard as a trial. There are two different types of trials. A bench trial is when a judge alone decides whether you are guilty or not guilty. He or she hears all of the evidence and then renders a verdict.

Your other choice is to have a jury trial, which means that (usually) twelve people from the community are selected to make this important decision, rather than the judge. The judge is still there during the trial, of course. But he/she is there primarily to help guide the trial and to make rulings on motions and objections, although the verdict is left ultimately to the jury.

At the 111th Street Branch Court (sometimes called 111th & Ellis), misdemeanor bench trials are held at that location, but jury trials are transferred usually to the Harrison location. A jury trial is often a much longer and complicated proceeding than a bench trial. First, the jury itself needs to be chosen from the “jury pool” of people who were summoned to the courthouse. The prosecutor and your lawyer will challenge certain potential jury members if they believe they are not going to be impartial or for other reasons. Only once the jury is chosen will the trial begin. For that reason, jury trials typically take at least two days minimum to complete, whereas some bench trial may be finished in just a day.