How does a court file paperwork...?

[victorias]

What is the name of your state? Texas

My best friend was arrested for a dwi on dec 31st, 2006. Both he and his bondsman have made phone calls to the court to find out about a court day but the court says they have no record of him whatsoever. It's been over 6 months since the arrest and since he bonded out. I understand that ONCE the court has your charge and has filed it they can give you a court date WHENEVER they want, my question is how long can they take to just even FILE the charge. They say they don't know who this person is, they find no charge for him, no paperwork for him. His bondsman says it's better for him not to call the court cause they may start looking for it if he does!!! How long does a court have to FILE on you??? Can they just keep your paperwork there for a year and then be like "oh okay, lets file it now???..." Would they not have a time-frame within which to work?

 

[CavemanLawyer]

The state has until the statute of limitations runs to file charges or else they are forever barred from filing those charges. A first offense DWI is a misdemeanor so the statute of limitations is 2 years.

Note that the limitation applies to the filing of the charge. Once charges are filed, the case can be pending for a very long time before constitutional issues require that it be dealt with.

The procedure for filing charges after arrest is that the arresting officer files a police report with an affadavit. That is forwarded to the District Attorney's office where the charging instrument is drafted. For a misdemeanor they create a complaint and information and it gets filed with the County Clerks office. The clerks office then assigns it to a court and that court then sets a court date and issues notice to the defendant. For felonies there's a more involved process before charges are filed.

6 months is a pretty long time but its not uncommon in certain jurisdictions.