A: Erin’s answer: CrRLJ (The Criminal Court Rules of Court's of Limited Jurisdiction) requires a probable cause determination by a judge within 48 hours of arrest. A preliminary hearing must be held as soon as practicable after the detention is commenced, but in any event before the close of business on the next court day. At the preliminary appearance a determination of release conditions and/or any bail that is required to be posted for release is made. An attorney can be appointed at that time if you cannot afford one. You have the right to be assisted by an attorney at every stage of the proceeding. Charges must be filed within 72 hours of your preliminary appearance or they must release you from jail. If charges are filed then you must be arraigned within 14 days. If you are still in-custody at your arraignment you have the right to a speedy trial in 60 days. A question of competency raised by the Court, prosecutor, or your attorney can toll the time of trial or arraignment; however, this would be highly unusual in DUI case in most cases. If you were too sick to go to Court or refused, the Court can make a finding of good cause to enlarge these time frames. These time frames to go to Court and see an attorney apply even if you have other holds on you.

If what you were saying is that Washougal Police arrested you and forgot about you for 34 days then yes you have a viable tort claim. The process for a tort claim begins with filing the claim with the municipality on their tort form. The municipality will evaluate your claim and may decide to settle it with you. If not, you can file a lawsuit 90 days after the tort claim has been made to the municipality.

This isn't impossible to do this yourself as the form is pretty straight forward; however, the process is usually much smoother with an attorney who has experience in and handles tort claims. In the last couple of years when I've had a client held over without legal justification the typical compensation was between $1000 and $1500 per day in Clark County.

A: Erin’s answer: You might be confusing issues. Sentencing only occurs after a guilty plea, or verdict of guilty at trial. Typically changing your plea to guilty is fairly straight forward and your attorney should be able to accomplish that for you. I suspect they may be working out the details on an offer to resolve your case. You always have the right to hire your own attorney if things are not going as well.

A: Erin’s answer: If he's being held in Washington, usually they extradite to Oregon on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule depending on his actual location.