State Specific- CT - Legal Guide on the Connecticut Criminal Justice Process written by attorney Kevin Murray Smith on November 7th, 2010. 

General - A guide to your first court appearance. This was written for people in Wyoming, but it applies to every state. 

If you are charged with a crime or issued a traffic ticket, you may be ordered to appear in court. Depending on the charges, you may be required to appear several times during a criminal case – for an arraignment, pre-trial conference, hearing, trial, sentencing, or other proceeding. A summons or notice to appear is a court order. If you do not appear as ordered, you have violated the court order and may face serious consequences, even criminal charges.

Information from the DOJ on initial court appearances.

Federal Specific - A general description of what happens in a federal criminal case.

General - A guide to your first court appearance. This was written for people in Wyoming, but it applies to every state. 

State Specific - NY - The criminal justice process is complex, and often can be confusing to persons not familiar with criminal law.  This arrest-to-sentence guide and legal glossary are designed to explain and clarify the criminal justice process in New York County.

General - This is an outline of the course a criminal case involving a felony, such as rape, follows through the court systems. Although you, as a witness, are not involved at every step, it can help you understand your role and the way the criminal justice system works by reviewing this information.

State Specific - NY - The arraignment is the first time you go to court in front of a Judge. At the arraignment, you are told what the charges are against you and what your rights are, like the right to a trial and the right to have an attorney appointed for you if you don’t have the money to hire one.

It’s especially difficult to generalize about this subject, since so much depends on a particular state’s procedures, whether it typically uses a grand jury to bring charges, etc. Here’s the procedure used with some variations in many states in which a prosecutor files charges without a grand jury.