Other than the clerk, of course.

Does a defendant usually get a copy of the judgment in your jurisdiction? I always assumed a defendant on probation got one, but now that I think about it, the judgment and sentence is different from the conditions of probation. And what about direct sentences? Nothing anywhere in the CCP says anything about a defendant getting a copy.

Anything I'm missing here?

Curiously yours,
SE

I believe that the best practice is to ALWAYS serve the defendant with a copy of the judgment / sentence. After all, how else could he or she calculate the deadlines within which to file a motion for new trial or appeal? Once the judgment is signed, the court-appointed attorney's job is done and the defendant is, thus, on his own.

Defendants have been able to get an out-of-time appeal based on not being told of the time within which they can file an appeal. Plus, what if the judgment is worded differently then what was orally pronounced or if the guy didn't get all his jail time credited? The sooner these problems are discovered the easier they are to be corrrected.

Serving the defendant helps avoid / reduce these problems.

In the Courts I have practiced in, the defendant is always given information regarding his right to appeal by the judge on the record. Of course, we have the defendant waive appeal in all pleas.

All the court appointed attorneys I have seen ALWAYS give written notice of appeal for their client, regardless of whether that attorney will be doing the appeal. I don't know if that is a duty of the attorney appointed but I do know I can't recall a time when a court appointed attorney did not give written notice of appeal, either at the end of the trial or several days later.

Other than that, what I am aware of is that the defendant is given a copy of his COP at the time of his initial meeting with probation.

In the two jurisdictions where I have practiced as a prosecutor, the judgment contained the conditions of probation and thus a copy was given to the probationer. There is nothing in the law which requires the service of a copy of the judgment on the defendant (in the case of a direct sentence) and it is not done as a matter of routine in Cooke County. I do hear defendants ask their attorney to be sure to supply them with a copy. Since the time for perfecting an appeal runs from the date of sentencing in open court, I do not necessarily think providing a copy of the judgment serves a purpose in that regard.

I guess we are too nice here in Wichita. We make copies of every judgment and if there is probation a copy of that too, obviously. But we give a copy to the defendant, a copy to his attorney, one for the sheriff, one for probation if they got probation and a complete copy of the whole set for us.

I am sure that is going to change sometime in the near future since the beginning of scanning of all documents but our county is lagging in the technology front since none of our records are online yet.

Heck, we are so far behind in technology that we can't sign into the county system from outside the building and no one can get into the jail screens to see who is in custody and what their bail is, but hey, that is another thread for another day.

The defendant only gets a copy of the judgment in my county if he/she gets probation or deferred since the conditions of probation are included.

We submit a copy of the proposed judgment in all cases to the defendant's attorney prior to the plea to make sure there are no issues regarding correct jail credit, etc.