Question about trial procedures in a criminal case.

It sounds like that on this date the court will "set" the case for trial, which means assign a date sometime in the future. BTW if your husband's PD is worth his salt he will call you when he needs clothes for trial.

The pass slip usually indicates the date of whatever setting is coming up next, so to answer your question yes that is likely the date of the upcoming trial. However, keep in mind that most cases don't go on their first jury trial settings. This is because so many defendants want a jury trial and the court can only hear one at a time. In addition, each side usually has at least 1 reset. There is preference given to defendants such as your husband that are in jail awaiting trial versus out on bond, however there may very well be another defendant that has been in jail longer. Also, public defenders can be hard to get a hold of as they are very busy with an abundance of cases on their plate. If this is a Dallas County case you can check on the status of court dates by going to http://www.dallascounty.org/criminalBackgroundSearch2/ and inputting your husband's name. From there you should be able to track the case settings. In addition, if you go to http://www.dallascounty.org/public_access.php and input the case number you can view any documents that have been filed in the case as a pdf. Hope this helps.

If you cannot reach the lawyer, you can also call the clerk's office or the court in which the case is pending and ask the meaning of the comments.

That sounds like an actual trial date. That being said, trials in Dallas are often reset. So the case may or may not go to trial on that date. Please also know that the first day of a felony trial is often only jury selection--although testimony does sometimes begin on that date.