Denver criminal defense lawyer / bench warrants

Having talked yesterday about arrest warrants and how a Denver criminal defense lawyer can help deal you deal with one, today I'm going to talk about a different kind of warrant: a bench warrant. Generally a bench warrant is pretty similar to an arrest warrant. It is an order telling police officers or sheriff's deputies to bring you in if they come across you. The only difference is that a bench warrant is not for an active investigation, it is for a case where a court is already exercising jurisdiction over the defendant. Generally a bench warrant arises simply because the defendant does not come to court.

Unlike an arrest warrant the sheriff will not actively be looking for the defendant where there is an outstanding bench warrant. Still, bench warrants matter. Many times the court will assess a fee that you have to pay when the defendant does get around to dealing with the case. A bench warrant can also put limitations on a defendant's passport until it is cleaned up, so travel is either restricted or prohibited. Finally, any time the defendant gets picked up he can be hauled in front of a judge. Fortunately, in contrast to arrest warrants, bench warrants are fairly easy to deal with.

If you want to deal with a bench warrant without a Denver criminal defense lawyer, going pro se is generally fairly easy. Every jurisdiction has slightly different procedures, so the best thing to do is generally to call the clerk of the court. In most cases they will have you come in person to the courthouse and then calendar your case for a hearing. At that time the case will be dealt with as if it were starting over, though there could be penalties for issuing the bench warrant and so on. You'll go through plea bargaining and possibly a trial or hearing (if the right to a jury trial hasn't been waived by your failure to request one within a certain time frame).

A Denver criminal defense lawyer can also help deal with bench warrants, sometimes without your appearance. He will file a motion to quash and calendar the case for hearing. Depending on whether the judge consents, he can help plead your case out without an appearance. In any case, once the case is filed for hearing, the warrant is gone and you just have to deal with the proceeding.

Finally, it's important to note a bench warrant (or an arrest warrant for that matter) never goes away. They just sit on your record and probably pop up at the most inconvenient time. The best course of action is to deal with it right away, either on your own or with a lawyer.