September 15, 2026
Criminal cases in San Mateo County are handled by the Superior Court’s Criminal Division at two locations: the Hall of Justice in Redwood City (400 County Center, 4th Floor) and the Northern Branch in South San Francisco (1050 Mission Road). A case moves from arrest and charging through arraignment, bail or release, pretrial hearings, and negotiation, reaching trial and sentencing only if it doesn’t resolve earlier.
If you or a family member has been arrested in San Mateo County, the most useful thing you can have is a map: what happens next, where it happens, and what decisions come at each stage. This guide walks through the criminal court process in San Mateo County step by step, and answers the practical questions people search for most: how to find your case, how to check the court calendar, and how to get court records. It is general information, not legal advice; the exact path of any case depends on the charges, the facts, and decisions made along the way.
Criminal cases in San Mateo County are heard by the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo, Criminal Division. There is no separate “criminal court” building; the Criminal Division operates at two locations:
| Location | Address | Handles |
| Southern Branch (Hall of Justice) | 400 County Center, 4th Floor, Redwood City, CA 94063 | Most criminal matters in the county |
| Northern Branch | 1050 Mission Road, South San Francisco, CA 94080 | Criminal matters arising in the north county |
Both locations share one Criminal Division phone number, (650) 261-5100, with office and phone hours Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The division’s own pages also host the county’s local bail schedules, active warrant information, and post-conviction program resources. Which courthouse and department your case lands in depends on where the alleged offense occurred and how the court assigns it, so always confirm your specific location and department from your paperwork or the court’s online tools (covered below) before any hearing.
The full roadmap looks like this:
Not every case goes through every stage. A misdemeanor never has a preliminary hearing, many cases resolve at or shortly after arraignment, some end in dismissal or diversion mid-stream, and only a small share reach a jury. Whether you are in custody, whether the charge is a misdemeanor or felony, and what the evidence looks like all shape which steps your case actually touches.
Not every criminal case starts with handcuffs. For many misdemeanors, officers issue a citation with a promise to appear: you sign, you’re released, and the citation lists a court date. For more serious allegations, an arrest leads to booking (fingerprints, photographs, records checks), after which you may be released on citation, released on bail or your own recognizance, or held for arraignment.
Two things people misunderstand at this stage:
The San Mateo County District Attorney’s office, not the police, decides what charges to file. Prosecutors review the reports and file a complaint: misdemeanor, felony, or a mix, and the charges filed can differ from what you were arrested for, in either direction.
Three terms worth separating, because they mean very different things on a record:
This distinction matters both for defending the case and for anyone searching court records: an arrest that never became a charge, and a charge that never became a conviction, read very differently to employers and background checks. See the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor in California for how charge level shapes everything that follows.
Arraignment is the first court appearance. The judge informs you of the charges, addresses your right to counsel (appointing a lawyer through the county’s Private Defender Program if you qualify financially), takes your plea, sets or reviews bail and release conditions, issues any protective orders (common in domestic violence cases), and schedules the next dates.
For defendants in custody, California law generally requires arraignment within 48 hours of arrest, excluding weekends and holidays (Penal Code 825). For many misdemeanors, your attorney can appear for you without your personal presence (Penal Code 977), which matters to working professionals; felonies generally require you to be there. The court also runs Zoom remote appearances for certain criminal calendars under its posted remote-appearance protocol; whether a remote appearance is allowed depends on the case and department.
Pleading “not guilty” at arraignment is a procedural step, not a strategy statement. It preserves every option: reviewing the evidence, negotiating, filing motions, or trial. Almost no one should plead guilty at arraignment before counsel has seen the file.
After arrest, release can happen several ways: citation release, own recognizance (OR) release (a written promise to appear, sometimes with conditions like check-ins or travel limits), or bail under the county’s local bail schedule, posted on the court’s Criminal Division pages.
Current California law adds an important layer: under the California Supreme Court’s decision in In re Humphrey (2021), courts generally may not keep someone in custody solely because they cannot afford bail; judges must consider ability to pay and less-restrictive alternatives. Bail amounts and release decisions still depend on the charges, criminal history, public-safety findings, and flight risk, so outcomes vary case to case. The official schedules are on the court’s Local Bail Schedules page; for how posting bail works mechanically, see our California bail guide.
Between arraignment and resolution, the real work happens:
Many criminal cases resolve during this stage without trial. How long it lasts depends on the case; in-custody cases move faster because statutory speedy-trial clocks are running.
Felony cases get an extra checkpoint. A preliminary hearing is a court proceeding, generally required within 10 court days of the arraignment or plea unless waived (Penal Code 859b), where a judge decides whether there is probable cause to believe a felony was committed and that the defendant committed it.
This is not a trial. The burden is far lower than beyond a reasonable doubt, no jury is present, and the judge is not deciding guilt. But it is the first time prosecution witnesses testify under oath and face cross-examination, which makes it valuable defense terrain: charges can be reduced or dismissed, weaknesses get locked into the record, and what happens here often reshapes negotiations. If the judge finds probable cause, the case is “held to answer” and proceeds toward trial on an information.
Most criminal cases end in one of these ways rather than at trial:
Which outcomes are realistically available depends on the charges, the evidence, your history, the prosecutor, the judge, and applicable law. Depending on the circumstances, a defense attorney may identify issues that support dismissal, reduction, or another favorable resolution; no honest lawyer promises one. For the procedural routes out of a case, see how criminal charges get dismissed in California.
If the case goes to trial, the sequence is: jury selection, opening statements, the prosecution’s evidence, the defense case (the defense may present evidence but never has to), closing arguments, jury instructions, deliberation, and verdict.
The prosecution must prove every element of every charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the highest burden in law. A guilty verdict leads to sentencing; a not-guilty verdict ends the case; a hung jury can lead to retrial or resolution. Misdemeanor defendants have the same jury trial right as felony defendants in California.
Sentences depend on the offense and the person. Misdemeanor sentencing commonly involves informal probation, fines and assessments, county programs, community service, restitution, and sometimes county jail. Felony sentencing can involve formal probation with conditions, county jail, or state prison, along with restitution, treatment requirements, and consequences that outlast the sentence: immigration exposure, licensing issues, and firearm prohibitions, depending on the conviction.
Courts weigh statutory sentencing rules, probation reports, aggravating and mitigating factors, and advocacy from both sides. Sentencing ranges are offense-specific, so beware of any article quoting one-size-fits-all numbers. After sentencing, the court’s own post-conviction resources page and record-relief law (such as expungement under PC 1203.4) become relevant; see our California expungement guide.
Start with the court’s official tools; third-party background sites are often stale or incomplete.
Know the limits: online case information is a convenience summary, not the official file. Some records are confidential or sealed (juvenile matters, certain victim information, diverted or sealed cases), remote online access can be more limited for criminal case documents than for civil, and older cases may not appear online at all. When a record matters, for immigration, licensing, or employment, request the official record or a certified copy from Records Management rather than relying on a screen.
Three tiers, in increasing order of authority:
Availability depends on case type, status, and privacy rules, and a name-only search can miss cases without a case number or date of birth. Note also that court records are not the same thing as a criminal-history (RAP) sheet, which comes from the California DOJ, not the court.
The court publishes hearing information through its Hearings/Courtroom Listing page, and case-specific hearing dates appear in the Odyssey Portal register of actions. The most reliable habit for defendants: sign up for the court’s free court date text reminders.
Calendar listings show the date, time, department, and hearing type, but they change: hearings get continued, departments get reassigned, and online listings may lag. Verify any hearing that matters against your paperwork, your attorney, or the Criminal Division at (650) 261-5100, and never treat an online calendar gap as permission to skip a date you were ordered to attend.
There is no universal timeline, but the statutory speedy-trial framework gives the outer structure: misdemeanor defendants are entitled to trial within 30 days of arraignment if in custody, 45 days if out of custody, and felony defendants within 60 days of arraignment on the information (Penal Code 1382), unless they waive time. Most defendants waive time so the defense can investigate and negotiate.
As rough, non-guaranteed patterns: simple misdemeanors often resolve in roughly one to a few months; felonies commonly run several months to a year or more, with preliminary hearings, motions, expert work, and negotiation each adding time. Custody status, case complexity, lab turnaround, witness availability, and court scheduling all move the number. Fast is not always good: time waivers usually exist because the defense is using the time to improve the outcome.
Missing a court date is a serious problem that compounds the original one. The court can issue a bench warrant, revoke or increase bail, and, depending on the case, a failure to appear can be charged as a separate offense. Consequences depend on the circumstances: courts distinguish an emergency from simply not showing up, and a prompt, voluntary return through counsel usually reads far better than being picked up on the warrant.
If you’ve already missed a date, act quickly: San Mateo County’s active warrant information is posted by the court, and counsel can often calendar a motion to recall the warrant. See what to do if you have a warrant in California and our San Mateo warrant help page.
Yes, some are, though never automatically. Dismissals before trial generally come from: insufficient evidence, successful suppression or other motions on constitutional or procedural grounds, a prosecution decision not to proceed, completion of diversion where a statute provides for dismissal, or a preliminary-hearing judge declining to hold a felony to answer. Whether any of these is realistic in a given case depends entirely on the facts and the file; no strategy guarantees dismissal, and cases that don’t dismiss outright are often still improved through reduction or negotiated outcomes.
You have the right to counsel in any case that carries jail time, and if you cannot afford a lawyer, the court will appoint one: in San Mateo County, uniquely, through the Private Defender Program administered by the county Bar Association rather than a public defender’s office. Whether to hire private counsel depends on the stakes and complexity; our guide to choosing between appointed and private counsel walks through that decision honestly.
Whoever represents you, a defense lawyer’s work in this process is concrete: reviewing the charges against the actual evidence, investigating, appearing at hearings (sometimes without you, in misdemeanors), evaluating constitutional issues, negotiating with the DA’s office, filing motions, trying the case if needed, and advocating at sentencing.
Thomas Greenberg has practiced criminal defense in these courtrooms for over two decades, first as a Deputy Public Defender in San Mateo County and now in private practice in Redwood City, a few blocks from the Hall of Justice. If you’re facing charges in San Mateo County, or you’ve just found a case or court date and aren’t sure what it means, the Law Offices of Thomas Greenberg can review your situation and explain what to expect at your next hearing.
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