Full question:
I'm involved in a Superior Court case where the judge ordered a continuance of a case management conference hearing and then said he'd be conducting a Walker hearing and he wanted briefs five (5) days before the resumption of the next case management conference. First, what's a Walker Hearing? I know it has to do with monetary amounts involving a threshold of $25,000.00. Does my brief have to prove that the case is worth more than $25,000.00 and is it done in a pleading format or not?
- Category: Courts
- Subcategory: Legal Definitions
- Date:
- State: California
Answer:
In People v. Walker, the Michigan Supreme Court held that when a defendant contends that statements that had been made were involuntary, the trial court must conduct a hearing outside the presence of the jury to determine the issue of voluntariness, at which the defendant may take the stand without waiving the right not to testify at trial. This right to a pretrial judicial determination of the voluntariness of a criminal defendant's statement derives from the prohibition in the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution against compelling a person in a criminal case to be a witness against himself.
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