How does a court of limited jurisdiction record a criminal mistrial in the Judicial Information System (JIS)?
The court should mark the trial as Held on the Hearings Held (HRH) screen. This makes a docket entry that the hearing (trial) was held. The court should also note on the Case Docket (CDK) screen that a mistrial occurred. Then schedule a new event using the Court Date (CDT) screen. The new event could be a pretrial hearing, trial, or other event that normally occurs after entry of a not guilty plea in a case.
Because a mistrial does not result in a finding, the Finding/Judgment field on the Plea/Sentence (PLS) screen should be left blank until there is a finding.
If the case is retried, two jury trials will be counted in caseload statistics. This is consistent with the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) Research unit's policy of crediting a court for a jury trial once voir dire has occurred, even if the case is ultimately resolved by other than trial or is resolved by a subsequent trial (i.e., guilty plea or dismissal immediately after voir dire, mistrial, or other event that may interrupt the trial).
RN id: 259