What will happen in court for for a paraphernalia charge? 5 Answers as of January 18, 2012

Get a lawyer. There is a huge range of things that can happen to you if you're charged with paraphernalia. You can be given probation, put into some sort of treatment program, or sent to jail for a long time. A competent lawyer can help you review your options.

You may be eligible for PC 1000 if it is your first offense. Contact a defense attorney about your case. You may be able to earn yourself a dismissal of entire case.

It is next to impossible to predict what will happen in court on a case. However, the exposure for such a charge is a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 6 months in jail. Most of the time resolution revolves around the criminal record. If the Defendant does not have any criminal history, often the case can be resolved in exchange for some drug awareness classes.

An attorney can tell you whether the search was lawful or not. If not, the evidence gets suppressed and you walk away free. If so, then the attorney will be able to work up a deal for you-presuming the "glass" was actually a pipe and that it was yours. If neither of those things is true, an attorney can push it to trial. Don't do this on your own. If you get convicted of paraphanelia there are bad things that you won't be able to get rid of on your record.

Likely nothing will come of the charge. The DA will possibly dismiss the case if the cop's report accurately indicates that the (I'm assuming) glass pipe was broken, since it is no longer a pipe useable as paraphernalia. You should speak with a criminal defense attorney. Sometimes early contact with the DA can get the case dismissed before filing, and there is then a penal code section in which you can petition the police agency who cited you to withdraw the citation, or file a motion with the court if/when they refuse to do so. This code section only works though if the DA refuses to charge the case in the first place. This means you need to get to the DA before they file the case in the court.