[update] Informing A Court That I'm Not Mentally Stable

Location: OR, US

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Previous post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/s/y9JqY54wco

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Just wanted to provide a quick update and thank the people who gave me useful advice last night. There was a lot of useful advice, and a whole lot more advice that was not useful.

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Today went as well could be expected. I woke up relatively mentally stable and surprisingly calm. No delusions or dissociations in sight. I think I finally reached a state of "what happens will happen, all I can do is my best." I couldn't take more antipsychotics, as I mentioned, but I did end up taking a double dose of mood stabilizers, which helped a lot.

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Despite what I had been told, and had previously experienced in this city, the County Circuit Court is entirely different in both function and process than the ones I've had to deal with before. They have much better processes and a far more fair system than the others.

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In this county circuit system, anyone designated as "out of custody" automatically remains out of custody under the same conditions unless they've broken the terms of release or committed crimes, so they didn't even consider trying to confine me.

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The first hearing was just one old judge who wanted to get everyone out of there so he could go take his 10:00 AM nap. He was very nice, though, but tough when he had to be. Someone caught a FTA bench warrant and forfeited $2000 (20k bond). The judge seemed to know him on a first name basis. He glanced around and then said "I don't see here, is he AWOL again?"

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He just went through person by person and said "do you have a copy of the document, is your name and birthdate correct, and are you being represented by the PD's office?" Three "yes, Your Honor" later and that was it. The PD had two staff there, one entering as counsel of record for everyone and the other doing the paperwork.

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They also have a much more fair system for public defenders. They gave me a paper to fill out and the court information lady asked me some leading questions to make sure that I met the qualifications. As in, "how much money do you have? Less than $2000, you think?"

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What surprised me most was the judge had already reviewed the situation and had given them notice that when I showed up, they should specifically ask me if I needed to do that. So not only did they not fight me about it, the judge specifically made certain that I got the paperwork.

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I arrived at 8:00 for an 8:30 hearing and was out by 9:15 with a new date at the end of July and a PD to contact on Monday.

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The entire situation is still unfair and, I suspect, politically motivated (the DA already dropped most of the charges before they even submitted the case, which tells me they know this won't hold up), but at least the court seems, so far, to be fair and reasonable.

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