Failure to appear on your court date will result in the judge issuing a warrant for your arrest. Court dates are mandatory when they are set and unless they get canceled you would be required to attend that court hearing.
Can you be arrested for failure to appear in court? You bet you will. If you have been charged with a crime and have been ordered to appear in court you need to attend. You could be required to attend court multiple times depending on the charges at hand. This could be for an arraignment, hearings, pre-trial conferences, sentencing or other types of proceedings. The summons to appear is a court order. Don’t show and it is violating the court order and you could be looking at consequences and even criminal charges.
What types of issues could you face for failing to appear?
If you fail to appear in court you could have various actions taken against you. If you fail to appear here are some actions that can be taken:
Bench Warrant
Failure to appear in court will most likely result in a warrant for your arrest. A bench warrant will be issued by a judge for the police to bring you into custody. A simple traffic stop after a bench warrant has been issued on you will result in you being arrested and brought into custody. a more serious crime will result in police actually searching for you at your place of work or home.
What happens at the hearing for a bench warrant? A brief hearing will take place before the judge, possibly the defendant’s attorney and the prosecutor. If you get detained by police and arrested you will appear within the court within 24 to 72 hours where the judge will determine the custody status and listen to why you failed to appear.
Driving license being suspended
Depending on the charge you could have your driver license suspended for failing to appear. This type of suspended license will hold up until your court appearance and you get in front of a judge in most cases.
Sentenced to jail
Jail time is not out of the question. If you are found guilty of not appearing then a court of law could impose a jail sentence. It is a good idea to hire a professional attorney if you can to help with any of these types of issues that could arise.
If you get arrested on a bench warrant a bail hearing most likely will be scheduled within 24 to 72 hours after you have been booked. At this time bail is most likely set. You will not be released before the bail hearing.
Changing conditions on the release
These types of conditions could be bond related. For instance, if you were not required to bond out for the first court appearance then the judge could impose a bond when law enforcement brings you in for failing to appear to court.
Failure to appear willful
This means that there have been circumstances that are beyond your control that has kept you from appearing in court. Keep in mind that Notice to appear if done by mail means that the court mailed your notice to you and it’s your job to inform the courts of address changes etc. Circumstances that are beyond your control may be a serious illness, natural disasters, accidents or something similar that could be used as a defense for failure to appear in court.
Common questions and answers for failing to appear in court
No, failure to appear is a violation of the court order and not a conviction. However, you should check with an attorney with your state to make sure
A bench warrant is a court record. With that being said if someone searches on court records nationwide that record will appear.
Yes, it will. These are part of the public records and can be searched by looking up the correct county, city, or state websites. You can use a third-party search service to also conduct a background check on someone.
No, they do not. They can be removed by the issuing judge by either recalling it or quashes it. Or if the person the warrant is issued for is brought into custody or becomes deceased.
