When are Victims able to be present at criminal proceedings?

I assume the State's Attorney is prosecuting? You should just ask them... if you can get them to take your call!

Personal anecdote, a friend of mine got hit by a car and died while walking her two kids (both kids lived) and the day the trial was supposed to start, the driver showed up to court early with her attorney and copped a plea and when the family showed up for the trial they were all told what happened... no chance to face the person, basically do what you want to do. They were told of the charges since she plea'd and it was basically probation or something retarded.

Criminal proceedings are open to the public. It is extraordinarily rare for any criminal proceeding to be closed to the public or the media, but a judge may and often does exclude television cameras or audio recording devices. You can go to your local state or federal courthouse and sit in on everything, bond hearings, motion hearings, the calling of the docket, trials, pleas, sentencing, etc.

Note that if a defendant pleas guilty they do have to give testimony in a Boykin hearing at which they are sworn in, testify that they are guilty, and answer questions regarding the circumstances of the guilty plea. The questions essentially try to certify that the defendant is guilty, they are voluntarily entering the plea, they know that they have a right to trial by jury and wouldn't have to testify, and that counsel was effective.

Many jurisdictions have an online docket system in which you can look up a defendant's next appearance date. If that is not available, call the prosecuting authority and ask to speak to the attorney prosecuting your case. They are usually very polite and accommodating of victims, since without you there is no case.

If you need help feel free to PM me.

Source: Former state prosecutor.

Edit: Note that in many very busy jurisdictions criminal cases can take years, especially if they are complex or very serious offenses. It's also customary for the prosecuting attorney to contact the victim at the outset of the case, or at least as the case moves closer to trial. In serious cases, prosecutors routinely run a plea deal by the victim before offering it to the defense. If you haven't been contacted yet, it may be because the case is too recent and your jurisdiction is busy.

From personal experience, I got mugged a few years ago, friend with me got stabbed 3 times. As far as I know, we were both at the first hearing to testify. Don't think anything happened before that. That alone took several weeks to happen. Guy took a plea deal for 17 years for assault with a deadly weapon instead of 25 years for attempted murder.

The assistant DA was there for our case and he kind of-sort of gave the decision for the plea deal to my friend since he was the only one that got stabbed. Told him it's harder to prove attempted murder so just go with the plea deal. We were both pretty happy with that.

Both of us were ordered to appear and sworn in, etc.

Probably just have to call the DA's office and ask, but there might not be much to see.

From my many years of watching Law and Order I have to assume that's what the people in the court gallery are there for. They just take out jack telling his assistant to make the calls/cc the email for dramatic effect.

May I ask what happened? Just out of curiosity

Start at the state's attorney's office. Ask if there's a victims rights coordinator or something with a similar title. Ask to be notified of shit and tell them you want to be involved.

Asks for advice and doesn't tell the story. Change avatar to wear scumbag hat

OP is a victim of the knockout game.