Motions To Be Made After A Plea Have Been Entered

You can basically make a motion at any point during the trial. But you must not appear to be frivolous or vexatious (harassing). Some of the motions you can make will be described below as we work through the rest of the stages of the trial.

Motion To Exclude Witnesses

This is a motion to ask all witnesses to leave the courtroom until they are called to testify. This is done to remove any influence that might affect their testimony. You can make this before the prosecutor calls her first witness. Sometimes, if you have extensive pre-trial motions, excluding the witness(es) is a good idea. For example, if you are arguing for a stay of proceedings based on the fact that neither you nor the cop can remember anything, it's important that the cop not hear these arguments as he may go out of his way during his testimony to prove how good his memory is.

Keep in mind that this motion will also apply to your witnesses as well. So if you have rebuttal witnesses, you should weigh carefully whether you want them to hear what the cop has to say so that they can contradict him in exacting detail.