What If I Have A Failure To Appear in a Los Angeles Criminal Case?
Failure to appear in a criminal case in Los Angeles, whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony, has severe consequences. The judge will typically issue a warrant for your arrest, escalating the seriousness of your legal situation.
California Penal Code 1320 defines the crime of “failing to appear” for a defendant released on their recognizance. Penal Code 1320.5 describes “failure to appear” in California for a defendant released on bail.
They'll set some bail. If there's already a bail set, sometimes they'll set a higher bail. Some of it is a punishment to show you they're not messing around.
I've also seen them set no bail in certain situations. This means that when they catch you, you're not able to bail out. That way, the judge makes sure that they get their hands on you and they're able to deal with you related to your court case.
So, failures to appear are severe, and if you fail to appear, it's on your record, and you're in warrant status. What we have you do is come in.
Dealing with a failure to appear requires a strategic approach. We carefully plan our strategy based on the judge and prosecutor we'll be dealing with. Our goal is to get the warrant recalled, get it quashed, and then address the underlying issue that led to the failure to appear. This strategic approach is crucial in resolving your legal situation.
Warrant Recall in Los Angeles Criminal Courts
One of the biggest questions people ask me is, if I have a failure to appear and a warrant, do I actually have to go to court, or can you go in there for me? Most of the time, the answer is yes. You do have to go to court. The judge wants to see you before they lift a warrant related to a failure to appear.
I've seen exceptions occur when somebody is out of the country or in another location where they cannot easily get in here. They're going to have to fly in, and a lot of times, I'm able to convince the prosecutor and judge to take the warrant out of the system to allow the person to fly in and not get arrested at the airport—LAX Airport, for example.
Then, they can take it out for two to three weeks to allow the person to get in here so they can deal with their criminal case. But it's very rare that they're just going to take a warrant out or let a lawyer deal with it unless somehow the warrant wasn't the person's fault in the first place, and then the judge may consider it.
If the criminal defense attorney can prove that it wasn't the person's fault that the warrant was issued, the judge may consider lifting it without the person actually being there.
But don't let the attorney trick you. You've got to be there to get the warrant recalled and quashed, and you have to be there to get the failure to appear taken care of. These failures to appear have ramifications. When people get a case, they often want a lower bail to get out and post the bail.
If a person fails to appear on their record, it is much more challenging to get the judge to either release you on your own recognizance, where you don't have to post bail or lower your bail to something you can post. Failure to appear signifies to the court that you're not a reasonable risk, as far as letting you go and hoping that you appear shortly.
So, if you've got a failure to appear or a bench warrant, give me a call. We'll sit down and go over everything, and I'll see what I can do to help you. Now, failures to appear on tickets—a lot of times, we can take care of those without you having to appear.
As long as it's not a misdemeanor or a felony—it's just an infraction—I can often take care of those failures to appear. We can get it taken care of. A lot of times, it's just a matter of appearing and being ready to pay a fine, and I do that for my clients all the time.
So, depending on what your failure to appear was for, which court it was, and whether there was bail and a warrant attached to it, that's going to dictate exactly how we handle your criminal matter in Los Angeles.
