Is it a bad thing if someone has to go to court again the day after they originally went?

Sounds like an error in the administrative docket filing.

*Unless you mean his original court date was for Failing to Appear* -- If this is the case then he should have still been given instruction on his next appearance in court.

Is he still in jail? If so, this is normal court proceeding -- that for whatever reason the original court hearing did not resolve his charge of Failure to Appear.*

-- The below applies assuming he went to court, things were settled in some manner.. and he is NOT still incarcerated.

If your friend was in court yesterday,.. and now he has an FTA with another court date scheduled for such then the court has issued a summons due to "Failure to Appear" -- meaning he wasn't accounted for when he went to court yesterday.

Your friend needs to, as soon as feasibly possible, clear this up. Since the date is tomorrow -- he should just go to the court date, ON TIME, and explain this to the judge. You generally received documentation at court hearings/arraignments, and certainly any dispositions.. so this will be sufficient evidence. Further if he has none, the error will be straightened out. It could be as simple as the judge or other court staff remembering his face from the day before - or other data collected. It is likely there was something marked when he was at court yesterday -- but between that and it being placed in the computer system could have created the issue.

Either way -- nothing more has developed criminally -- it is all procedural. The Judicial process is slow, and if one is currently incarcerated they sometimes speed up the court dates due to getting things handled to benefit the person's 'freedom' essentially. Though not always,.. it is more common for there to be delays, sometimes long, if one is unable to post bail and must remain in jail until their next court proceeding.

Take care,

Today was probably his bail hearing, tomorrow is his arraignment/initial pre-trial.

It doesn't really mean anything. This is just standard procedure.