Rule 14.4 Transfer When a Bond Reduction or Preliminary Hearing Is Pending

Sometimes a criminal case gets assigned to the wrong court division by mistake. If this happens after a bond reduction hearing or preliminary hearing has already been scheduled, the court cannot just move the case right away. The original division must wait until after that scheduled hearing happens before transferring the case to the correct division.

This rule keeps hearings from getting delayed or cancelled just because of a filing mix-up. If a bond hearing or preliminary hearing is already on the calendar, it will go forward as planned, even if the case technically belongs in a different division.

There are two exceptions to this rule. A judge can still transfer a case right away if someone is trying to "shop" for a particular judge by improperly scheduling a hearing in the wrong division. A judge can also transfer the case immediately if the division that would normally receive the case agrees to hear the pending motions anyway. These exceptions help prevent people from gaming the system while still giving courts flexibility to handle cases efficiently.