Bench Warrant- better to get the orders Quashed
Bench warrants are a type of written orders issued by the court. These warrants direct law enforcing authorities to produce an accused before the court. This warrant is generally released when someone who is charged with a crime fails to produce him for hearing. In fact, Bench Warrants direct the authorities to pick up the accused person and produce before the court due to non compliance of judicial orders. This matter is seen with the eyes of a willful act of contempt of court orders or disregarding the judiciary. The best advice one take here is not to indulge in any contempt to the court orders to avoid larger problems.
Failure to appear in the court is the most common type of contempt of orders committed by the people. Every citizen is duty bound to obey the call of courts, the Bench Warrants. Hence, a violator of court orders has to deal first with answering reasons for non-compliance of the court order. This itself may become a separate charge against an individual and dealt by the court separately from the original charge for which the court had summoned him. Other types of contempt of court order are failing to appear on the scheduled date and disobeying to testify a case under proceeding. The Bench Warrants are issued when the order issuing judge is aware of a particular situation or someone files a case requesting for Bench Warrant even for offences like a failure to pay for child support.
The character of Bench Warrants differs from those of Arrest warrants. The Arrest warrants are results of suspicion of someone’s involvement in a crime. Whatever may be the difference, one should take adequate defending steps without any delay for Quashing the Warrant that is making the warrant null and void. One facing Bench Warrant should communicate with the court through his lawyer to know the needed approach for Quashing the Warrant. With some differences in procedure for such nullification from place to place, generally the Clerk’s Office handles the process by scheduling a hearing with a personal presence. The process normally involves a fee and signing a bond for personal appearance for scheduled hearing. Unless the judge signs another order nullifying the previous order, Bench Warrant remains in active status. The other process of Quashing the Warrant is filing a Motion to Quash Bench Warrant. This is a type of filing for motion is handled by professional lawyers. But, even in this alternative way of nullification of Bench Warrants, physical appearance of the accused person or defendant is necessary during the hearing.
Unless the Bench Warrant is quashed, though may be days or weeks after, the accused people are exposed to get picked up by the police. Such misfortune may even occur in very awkward times. There is no surety when, but it is sure to happen. So, it is wise to have the warrants nullified to avoid spending time under the custody until the time a release order is issued.
A bench warrant is slightly different from a more general arrest warrant. A warrant for arrest is issued when a law enforcement agency has reason to believe that someone has been involved in a crime. For example, an arrest warrant will be issued by a court for someone who is accused of murder so that he or she can be indicted and tried. Typically, someone can pay bail to get out of jail after an indictment hearing has been held, while the subject of a bench warrant may not be allowed to pay bail if the court determines that the person needs to be held in jail, since she or he is deemed a flight risk.
source:
- byrd5436585's blog
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