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What a Michigan Judge Must Put on the Record at Arraignment
Arraignment is the shortest hearing in a Michigan criminal case and frequently the one that decides the most. A defendant learns the charge, enters a plea, and finds out whether they are going home, and the last of those is governed by a statute that tells the court exactly what to consider and to say out loud.
MCL 765.6(1) states that except as otherwise provided by law, a person accused of a criminal offense is entitled to bail, and that the amount shall not be excessive. It then requires the court, in fixing that amount, to consider and make findings on the record as to four specific matters.
The Four Findings
The first is the seriousness of the offense charged. That is the charge as it stands at arraignment, which is often broader than what the case eventually becomes.
The second is the protection of the public, and the third is the previous criminal record and the dangerousness of the person accused. Those two overlap in argument but are listed separately, and a record that looks alarming in the abstract may say little about present dangerousness once the dates and dispositions are supplied.
The fourth is the probability or improbability of the accused appearing at trial. This is the factor a defense is usually best positioned to address at short notice, because it turns on employment, housing, family, and history of appearance rather than on the allegation.
Findings on the Record Are the Enforceable Part
The requirement is not merely that a court weigh these things privately. The statute says the court shall consider and make findings on the record as to each of them, which produces something that can be reviewed.
An amount set without those findings is set contrary to what the section requires, and that is a point to raise at the time rather than to absorb. Arraignments move quickly and the record is short, which is precisely why what goes into it matters.
Preparing for that hearing usually means arriving with the fourth factor already answered. Proof of employment, an address, and someone present in the courtroom are the kinds of facts a court can put in its findings, and they are difficult to assemble after the hearing has happened.
Two Options That Are Easy to Miss
Where a court fixes a bail amount and allows a 10 percent deposit bond, the accused may instead post bail by a surety bond in an amount equal to one quarter of the full bail amount, executed by a surety the court approves. That alternative sits in the same section and is not always raised.
The second option applies to smaller cases. Where a person is arrested for an ordinance violation or a misdemeanor and their driver’s license is not expired, suspended, revoked, or cancelled, the court may require them to surrender that license in place of other security, or as a condition of release on personal recognizance.
The court issues a receipt for the license under MCL 257.311a, and where the trial date is set at arraignment it is specified on the receipt. For a defendant who cannot post money at all, that provision can be the difference between release and custody, and our Michigan traffic and misdemeanor work involves it regularly.
What Answers the Fourth Factor
Of the four statutory findings, the probability of appearance is the one a defendant can actually supply evidence about within hours. The other three are largely fixed by the charge and the record before anyone reaches the courtroom.
What answers it is ordinary and documentary. A current address, an employer and a shift schedule, school enrollment, children in the household, length of residence in the county, and a record of appearing at previous court dates all speak to it directly.
Having a family member or employer physically present is worth more than a description of one. A court making findings on the record can note who is in the courtroom, and that note becomes part of the record that supports the amount it sets.
What Arraignment Does Not Decide
The plea entered at arraignment is not the plea that resolves the case. Not guilty is the ordinary entry, and it preserves everything, including the ability to negotiate later from a position that has not been given away in the first hours.
Nothing about the evidence is tested at this stage either. In a felony the testing happens at a preliminary examination, and in a misdemeanor it happens at pretrial and trial, so an arraignment is not the moment to explain what happened. Statements made in an effort to be helpful at this hearing are made on the record, before anyone has seen the reports, and they do not come back off it.
Conditions of release imposed at arraignment do bind immediately, and a no-contact condition in particular takes effect before most people have spoken to a lawyer. Understanding exactly what was ordered, and by when, is worth doing that day rather than at the next hearing.
Most of what can be influenced at arraignment is influenced by information a court does not have unless somebody supplies it. Call our office at (800) 525-6386 and we will walk through it with you.
In the First Hours of a Case
Release conditions set in a five-minute hearing govern a case for months, and they are far easier to shape than to revisit. Being reachable before that hearing is worth more than being reachable after it. At Neumann Law Group, we handle Michigan criminal defense matters in district courts from Grand Traverse County to Wayne County. Call us at (800) 525-6386 or contact our office to arrange a consultation.