What do you if you Miss Your Court Date?
So you had a court date scheduled and you missed it. What do you do? There are all kinds of reasons this happened. Maybe you had an emergency. Maybe you had a really good reason. Maybe you were afraid of what might happened. Maybe you just forgot. Regardless, there is likely a warrant for your arrest. The real question is, what now? If you are facing serious criminal charges and there is a warrant for your arrest, schedule a consultation with an experienced criminal defense attorney. If this isn’t the route you want to go, this article will provide you some of the basics.
“There are different kinds of warrants and some need more preparation to deal with than others.”
Different Kinds of Warrants
There are different kinds of warrants here in Minnesota. Depending upon which one was issued, you can handle them different. These Minnesota warrants are:
Bench warrants: Bench warrants are issued for individuals who fail to appear in court for a hearing, violate their pre-trial release supervision conditions or don’t follow some other court order.
Complaint warrants: Complaint warrants are issued as part of the original criminal complaint. These are more typical with violent offenses, criminal sexual charges or if an individual cannot be located or are out of state.
Probation violation warrants. These kinds of warrants are issued for an individual was has already been sentenced and is under the supervision of Community corrections. and has allegedly violated their conditions of probation.
Can I Just Pay Money to Reschedule a Warrant?
If you miss Court and a warrant has been issued for your arrest, there are a couple of different ways to handle it but this first thing you need to do is determine what the Court did when you failed to appear. Call Court administration in the County where you were supposed to appear. Here are generally the options:
Bench warrant with bail option: The Court may have set a bail amount and you can either pay that bail amount (or a bond) and Court administration will reset a new Court date.
Bench warrant, body only: If the Court set this kind of warrant, you are required to turn yourself in to appear before the Judge. This being said, there are a lot f moving parts of this issue. You should discuss with an experienced Minnesota criminal defense attorney.
“There are different ways to handle these kinds of warrants and it starts to get tricky once you appear. Knowing what to argue and when to not argue is sometimes just as important.”
What Kinds of Cases can have Warrants Issued for your Arrest?
Sadly, the Court is willing to issue arrest warrants for just about any case where you could face jail time. In fact, the more serious the charge, the more likely that this warrant will be a bench warrant, body only type. The kinds of charged include:
Sex crimes
Domestic assault crimes
Murder
Violent Crimes
DWI Charges
Drug charges
Probation violations
Theft, Fraud and Property crimes
If you are facing a serious criminal charge and you just learned that there may be a warrant for your arrest, the decisions you make next may be some of the most important of your life. Make sure you sit down with an experienced Minnesota criminal defense attorney. It could make all of the difference.
Jack Rice is a nationally known and respected criminal defense attorney. He is a former prosecutor, a former CIA Officer and a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist. He is also the Founder of Jack Rice Defense, a boutique criminal defense firm based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Contact Jack Rice Defense for a free confidential consultation or call 651-447-7650 or 612-227-1339. When your life is on the line, Jack Rice Defense.