Art. 833. Presence of defendant; misdemeanor prosecution

            A. The court may permit an unrepresented or pro se defendant charged with a misdemeanor to be arraigned, enter his plea of guilty, or be tried, in his absence.

            B.(1) A plea of not guilty of a misdemeanor may be allowed to be entered through counsel of record.

            (2) A plea of not guilty of a misdemeanor shall be allowed to be entered through counsel of record in the absence of the defendant by the filing of a sworn affidavit in advance of the scheduled arraignment date.

            C. The sworn affidavit referenced in Subparagraph (B)(2) of this Article shall include the caption of the case and summons number, citation number or docket number as applicable, and state as follows:

AFFIDAVIT ACCEPTING SERVICE AND

WAIVER OF PRESENCE

            BEFORE ME, the undersigned authority, did personally come and appear, ____________(CLIENT'S NAME), who after being duly sworn did depose and say:

1.

            Affiant acknowledges that he is the defendant in the above captioned criminal matter; that he is aware of all charges pending against him in this matter and that he has retained the services of ____________ (ATTORNEY(S) or LAW FIRM) to represent him in these proceedings;

2.

            Affiant is aware that he is scheduled to be in court on the ______ day of ______, 20__ at ___ o'clock and that he has the right to be present on that day but expressly wishes to waive this right and to have his legal counsel appear on his behalf;

3.

            Affiant is aware that in his absence, additional court dates could be scheduled in these proceedings and he hereby appoints his above named legal counsel as his agent(s) to accept service of notice to appear for those dates on his behalf, that he accepts service of those dates through his counsel and that he expressly waives his appearance for those dates and authorizes his counsel to appear on his behalf;4.

            Affiant understands that the court, in its sole discretion, may revoke its acceptance of this waiver and require that affiant personally appear in open court on subsequent court dates; that his counsel will also be notified; that a notice of appearance will be mailed to affiant at his address of record and that affiant's failure to appear at the subsequent court date could result in the issuance of an arrest warrant, a revocation of appearance bond and/or is punishable as contempt of court;

5.

            Finally, Affiant acknowledges that his current address is: _______________(Street, Apt/Lot No, City, State and Zip Code); and authorizes the court to use this address for all notices, unless changed in writing by affiant.

____________________________________

                                                                        Affiant

            SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED BEFORE ME, notary, this ____ day of ______, 20__.

____________________________________

NOTARY PUBLIC

            Acts 1990, No. 543, §1; Acts 1990, No. 593, §1; Acts 1997, No. 1015, §1; Acts 2017, No. 406, §1; Acts 2020, No. 160, §2; Acts 2021, No. 235, §1; Acts 2022, No. 446, §1.