legal rights

Failure To Appear (FTA) Arrest

If you are given a court date to appear before a judge, you are legally obligated to do so. Not appearing can lead to a Failure To Appear warrant and eventually your arrest. The situation can quickly turn messy, so you’ll want to deal with it as soon as possible.  When you miss court once it may not be the end of the world as long as you deal with the situation timely.  Many bondsman may do business with someone who is willing to turn themselves in and only missed court once.  This is different for those who have missed court more than once.  At this point, the bond becomes what we call a “C Bond” in which no bail bondsman will be willing to take the risk unless the bond is collateralized 80-100 percent, plus premium fees.

Reasons For Missing A Court Date

Whatever the reason that you may have missed your court date, it really boils down to the fact that you are responsible for showing up on time and to the right location. If you are sick or have an emergency, it is your responsibility to contact the court and let them know what is happening. They may or may not be able to reschedule your court date. Being honest is better than having a warrant out for your arrest.

Didn’t know?

You should have been notified about your court date by mail. Most citations come that way. If you don’t have a lawyer who also received the notification, there is a possibility that you might not even know that a date has been made. And you might not even find out that you missed the date until you’ve been arrested and told why you landed in jail.

How Likely Is It To Be Found?

If you have a FTA warrant out for your arrest, it is very likely that you will be arrested. Once you are arrested, there is no turning back. The best time to act is before you get arrested. Turn yourself in and show that you did not know you were due to appear, or that you had an emergency situation. You can be flagged by police departments, found at a traffic stop, License plate scanning is happening more and more, making avoiding arrest more difficult.

If you are facing a failure to appear arrest, we can help you post your bond. If this is your first time, the process is fairly easy and we can usually do it with no collateral. If this is not your first time, we may need to charge a credit card for collateral in order to minimize the risk of the bail bond agent. If you are in need of help, give us a call at Amistad Bail and Immigration Bonds today.

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