Having an arrest warrant or even the thought of one looming over your head can be an immensely stressful situation. You may fear when an arrest can happen, hoping that it isn’t in front of loved ones or work colleagues and just overall feeling a lack of control about what to do. It is completely understandable to feel this way but one thing you may not know is there are actually actions that can be taken that could possibly help you dictate where and when an arrest happens or even possibly avoid arrest altogether. Here is what you need to know.
Check for information about the warrant
The very first thing you are going to want to do is to get in contact with a local bail bondsman agency. They have access to databases that can confirm if you in fact do have an outstanding warrant and if so, what it would be for. Usually, these warrants are only issued for three specific circumstances. The first is the defendant did not show up to their scheduled court date and from that point, the judge issues a bench warrant. The second would be if an internal investigation has occurred and law enforcement had gained enough evidence or information to issue an arrest. And the last is if a person has too many unpaid tickets. In most of these cases, it would not necessarily be a surprise if there was a warrant but it is always useful to have actual confirmation.
What to do if there is a warrant
Once you have actual confirmation of a warrant then there are a couple of options. The first is to see if you can work with the bail bondsman to negotiate to pay the bond to avoid arrest entirely. For things like unpaid tickets and even if there was a misunderstanding in regards to the defendant not showing to court there are ways where the fines could be paid. With this, you would still have to go to court but could possibly bypass actually having to be detained. When it comes to criminal investigations, however, there is not really a way to forgo arrest but it would be of benefit to hire a lawyer and see if the terms of surrender can be negotiated so that you can have control of when and where it happens to avoid any additional stress about it.
Overall, although it can be a really overwhelming feeling knowing that you may be arrested, it is not completely out of your hands and steps can be taken. If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to get in touch and we will be happy to assist!