This work analyses an ensemble of collective initial hearings, known as Audiencias de Control de Detención Colectivas (ACDC), understood as the initial proceeding where the detained individual is taken to a judge within twenty-four hours of the arrest in order to verify the legality of the arrest, the individuals’ awareness of their rights, that the established laws for the rights and legal guarantees are respected and leave a record of the proceeding. This work, carried out from a discourse perspective, aims to understand how ACDCs function and how this affects individual’s access to justice. To examine this, we used the methodology proposed in Discourse Analysis, including elements from the French school of Discourse Analysis such as the theory of the communication contract and the discursive ethos; as well as concepts from the English and Spanish speaking schools of Discourse Analysis. In addition, we included concepts from Sociology of Law and took into consideration the historical context of the Chilean Criminal Law Reform. This research was conducted using a corpus composed of eleven ACDC that took place in the Magistrate Court of Concepción, recorded between August of 2018 and March of 2020. The results show the importance of the discourse dimension regarding turn distribution, types of discourse organization and forms of address that impact an individual’s way of accessing justice.