Consequences of Failing To Appear in Court
What are the consequences of failing to appear for court after you bailed out in Oklahoma? I’m Justice Attorney James Wirth and that’s the question that we have. So you’ve been charged with a criminal offense. The court has set a bail amount and you or a family member has paid that or you or your family member has hired a bail bondsman that has taken care of a bond to get you out. But then you fail to appear, what happens?
Well, first thing, if it’s a criminal case and you fail to appear, you know what’s gonna happen. A warrant is going to issue for your arrest. Typically, in Oklahoma courts, where I practice, what we generally see is when someone fails to appear, they triple the amount of the bond. So if the bond was set at 10,000 and you fail to appear, they’re gonna say, well, obviously $10,000 wasn’t enough to make you show up. How about $30,000? And they’ll automatically up that bond.
Dealing with a Warrant
Then at that point, they’re not necessarily gonna go get you. If it’s a super serious offense, you’re a danger to the public, then yes, they will send law enforcement to pick you up. In lower level cases, they won’t. They will wait for you to have a traffic stop or otherwise have an encounter with police. They’ll notice you have a warrant and they’ll pick you up or they’ll wait for you to turn yourself in.
Or if you used a bail bondsman, well, they will wait for that bail bondsman to pick you up and bring you in so the bail bondsman is not out that money that they promised in order to cover your bail. So at that point, you’re gonna wanna coordinate with your bail bondsman if you have one.
Seeking Legal Advice
You’re gonna wanna present before the judge with an attorney that can maybe advocate on your behalf to try to explain away while you missed your court date, maybe see if that bail can be reduced from the triple amount back to the original amount, maybe get that bail bondsman to re-endorse so you get the warrant recalled and get your case to move on. So that’s what happens and what you should do if you’re in those circumstances.
Contact Us for a Strategy Session
But one other thing you definitely need to do is contact an Tulsa criminal defense attorney. Get advice specific to your circumstances before doing those things. To get that scheduled with a Tulsa lawyer at Wirth Law Office, you can go online to MakeLawEasy.com or call us at 918-879-1681 for a low-cost initial strategy session.
