You just found out that you have a warrant for your arrest. There may be a criminal investigation you didn’t know about. You may have missed a court date or events that you were suppose to show up to court. You may have violated a requirement of your probation. You may even think that you have a good reason why you did not appear. At this point, it doesn’t matter. You have a warrant for YOUR arrest! I had a Judge tell me one time that the only excuse he would accept for my client missing a court date, would be a written letter from a funeral parlor. He was serious. To this Judge, death was the only acceptable excuse for getting rid of an arrest warrant.
So what do you do if you have an arrest warrant? Doing nothing is the wrong answer. You can’t live your life worried that any police officer will serve an arrest warrant on you while you are at work, school, church, a family picnic, or in the middle of the night. An arrest warrant will find you, and it won’t be at a good time.
First, contact an experienced criminal defense attorney. They can best advise you on what you need to do to help in this situation and if possible, start working on getting the arrest warrant removed. Next contact a local bonding agency. If you are picked up on an arrest warrant, or if you turn yourself in to the jail, you will want the bonding agency ready to go. They can help you with the paper work and get you out of jail faster. They could also advise you what days and times are better to turn yourself into the jail so that you can be released quicker. By turning yourself into the jail, you are also telling the Judge that you did not mean to miss the date and you are taking responsibility to solve this problem.
Having an arrest warrant is not fun, and it is a problem. But it is a problem that you can control. If you have an arrest warrant out for you, hire an experienced criminal attorney, and take the proper steps with your bonding agency. You can survive the experience of having a warrant for your arrest.