I got charged with assault do I need to go to court?

When you are charged with one of the common types of assault, you will generally be arraigned and have the charges read to you. You'll need to go to this arraignment, since every person within the criminal justice system is entitled to hear the charges and to face his accusers. At the arraignment, you may either plead guilty or not guilty, and a trial may then be scheduled.

Whether or not you actually need to go on to a trial will depend on what you decide to do. You essentially have a few major options:

• You may arrange a plea bargain with the prosecutor. This involves agreeing that you were guilty and arranging a deal. Usually, this results in you getting some type of reduced sentence, as compared to what you might receive if you were found guilty in a trial and sentenced. Arranging a plea bargain can be a wise choice if you know you don't have a good defense against what happened. If you do arrange a plea bargain, you may have to appear in court in order to affirm to the judge your guilt and have the agreed upon sentence read to you and affirmed by a judge. However, you won't have to defend yourself in court or in front of a jury
• You may plead not guilty and you may go through a full court trial. You'll have to present evidence here, either introducing reasonable doubt as to your guilt or arguing an affirmative defense, such as insanity or self defense.

To decide on what your best option is, you need to have a criminal lawyer giving you advice.