united-states trial
How does a preliminary hearing differ from a full trial?
<p>Apparently "preliminary hearings" are to determine whether or not the defendant should be sent to Superior Court for a "full" trial. (My "source" for this is "Perry Mason.")</p>

<p>What exactly is a "preliminary hearing"? Is it a "halfway house" between say, a grand jury indictment and a trial? Or given the sequence of arrest and "preliminary hearing," is it the grand jury indictment process itself? </p>

<p>A  "preliminary hearing", of the kind depicted in the Perry Mason novels, is a procedure in California and some other states. It is an alternative to a Grand jury proceeding. It is used to determine whether there is probable cause to put the defendant on trial.</p>

<p>Such hearing are mostly rather routine, and rarely reach the level of drama shown in "Perry Mason". But the prosecutor does present witnesses, which the defendant's lawyer can cross-examine. The defendant may, but rarely does, also present witnesses. </p>

<p>Note that Mason stories sometimes involved a full trial, not just a preliminary hearing.</p>

<p>Gardner, who wrote Perry Mason, was a practicing attorney in CA, and most of the law as he shows it was accurate when he wrote, but he often showed legally possible but highly unlikely events to improve the drama of his stories.</p>

<p>In addition to David Siegel's accurate answer, here is a map of which states do and do not use grand juries. States where they are not mandatory use them very rarely and instead use preliminary hearings more than 95% of the time in cases where they are not required. (Preliminary hearings are usually only available in felony cases and not in misdemeanors.)</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u4WQ0.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u4WQ0.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
