The proceeding by which a party charged with a public offense is accused and brought to trial and punishment, is known as a criminal action.
Cal. Penal Code § 683
PRELIMINARY PROVISIONS
Applied in 15 court decisions — leading case 24 Cal. 4th 1057 - Curle v. Superior Court of Shasta County (2001)
Most recently applied in 163 Cal. App. 4th 1314 - In Re Red Light Photo Enforcement Cases (June 2008)
Enacted 1872.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.