For anyone, who like me, is not a lawyer:
http://bhtampa.com/blog/evidentiary-hearing/
An evidentiary hearing in criminal cases is most commonly referring to a hearing that occurs as part of a violation of probation case. When someone charged with a violation of probation and does not resolve the case with an admission or dismissal of the violation of probation, the case will ultimately resolves with an evidentiary hearing. An evidentiary hearing is the equivalent of a trial for a law violation.
During the evidentiary hearing, the State Attorney’s Office will call witnesses and present evidence attempting to prove the probationer violated their probation. The Accused will also have the opportunity to call witnesses, present evidence and present argument. Ultimately as we have discussed in other blog articles, there are two (2) types of violation of probations – technical and substantive violations. An evidentiary hearing can occur on either a technical or substantive violation. The State is forced to prove the violation by a preponderance of evidence. This is a much, much lower burden than beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt – the standard for criminal cases. Many times, a probationer will be found not guilty on the underlying the substantive criminal charge or the State will abandon the charges and the Court will find the probationer has violated the terms of their probation. The Judge will have the ultimate decision; a probationer does not have the right to have a jury make the decision. A probationer does have a right to counsel during the evidentiary hearing. An attorney can greatly assist in forcing the State Attorney’s Office to properly carry their burden.