In open court is a legal term in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

defined by the appearance by a party or their attorney in a public

court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...

session such as during a

public trial Public trial or open trial is a trial (law), trial that is open to the public, as opposed to a secret trial. It should not be confused with a show trial. United States The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution establishes the right o ...

. Normally, the public may be present at trials, hearings and similar routine matters.

United States constitutional law

Under Article III, Section 3 of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...

: In the United States, the

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

guarantees

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

defendants the right to a "''speedy and public trial''" under the Sixth and the Fourteenth Amendments. The Sixth Amendment also grants the defendant the right to appear on his or her own behalf requiring leave of the Court in complex criminal cases, and standby counsel may still be required by the judge.

Distinguishing rules

Many courts dealing with minors, such as the

New York Surrogate's Court The Surrogate's Court of the State of New York handles all probate and estate proceedings in the New York (state), New York State judiciary of New York, Unified Court System. All wills are probated in this court and all estates of people who die ...

Probate Court A probate court (sometimes called a surrogate court) is a court that has competence in a jurisdiction to deal with matters of probate and the administration of estates. In some jurisdictions, such courts may be referred to as orphans' courts o ...

Family court Family courts were originally created to be a Court of Equity convened to decide matters and make orders in relation to family law, including custody of children, and could disregard certain legal requirements as long as the petitioner/plaintif ...

, juvenile court, or widow's and orphan's court do ''not'' normally hold sessions in open court. Appearance in open court is distinguished from an appearance in a

judge's chambers A judge's chambers is the office of a judge, where the judge may hear certain types of cases, instead of in open court. Description A judge's chambers is the office of a judge, where certain types of matters can be heard "in chambers", also ...

.Ballentine's Law Dictionary, p. 378

References

Judiciaries Legal procedure American legal terminology {{US-law-stub

United States constitutional law

Distinguishing rules

See also

References