Failure to Appear and Capias Warrant in Virginia
If you had a court date for a traffic or misdemeanor case in Virginia and you failed to appear, you may be facing capias warrant in VA.
What is a capias warrant? A capias warrant is also known as a bench warrant. If you’re lucky, you’ll just have a show cause for failing to appear, but either way, you may be in even more trouble at this point.
If you have a case where you’re facing actual jail time in court such as a DUI, a driving on suspended, a possession of marijuana, and even some forms of reckless driving, and you don’t go to your court date, the remedy for that normally is for the judge to issue a bench warrant for your arrest; it’s a capias issued failure to appear in court.
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What Happens After A Capias Warrant Is Issued in Virginia?
A capias warrant is a bench warrant issued by a judge for your arrest if you fail to appear at a court hearing in a misdemeanor or felony case, leading to severe consequences. What Virginia capias warrants means is that any officer who can find you is going to have the power to arrest you and take you to jail.
Then take you in front of the judge for arraignment on the capias and then also to answer for the underlying charge for whatever you missed the court date for originally.
If you failed to appear at court and a capias issued failure to appear, you may be facing two misdemeanors instead of just the original charge, and in some cases, judges actually do send people to jail for not coming to court.
What Should You Do About Failure to Appear in Virginia?
The best thing to do is to talk with an attorney right away.
If it’s still the same day that you’re supposed to be in court and you simply didn’t have a ride or your transportation broke down, you should definitely call the court as well.
In some courts, if you can get yourself to the courthouse before the close of business on the same day, the judge may withdraw that bench warrant in VA and might convert it to a show cause or may simply continue the case to another day for a hearing.
You’ll still probably have to answer for why you weren’t there on time; however, it can make the situation better if you show up to court on the same day you were supposed to be there.
What if Court Date Was a While Ago and You’re Just Now Realizing You Missed It?
In a situation where you missed court more than a day ago, that’s where you definitely need to call me.
We can discuss your situation and what you’re really looking at. If you have an explanation for why you weren’t in court, you definitely should gather paperwork or witnesses about what happened.
For example, if you were in the hospital, then we may have a really good argument if the paperwork show you were there during your required court appearance. We’ll want to bring copies of that to show the judge.
If you have a capias warrant, you’ll need to have that served on you, and it’s best if you can turn yourself in on the capias instead of being arrested when it’s inconvenient and perhaps very embarrassing.
This is another thing that I can help you with, and I know the courts around Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania and Stafford.
If you call me, we can hopefully arrange a good time for the court and you to turn yourself in. In some cases, it may be where you get arraigned on the capias that very day and the judge just sets a new court date for all your charges.
Pay only in cash for outstanding capias warrants. Contact a bail bondsman or authorized surety to obtain an appearance bond. The bondsman or surety will charge a fee for their service.
Also, turning yourself in does look good.
When you answer for the capias in court on the trial date, you’re going to be able to show the judge that you really are trying to be responsive to the court and once you’ve learned about the problem, you took action quickly and then turned yourself in voluntarily on the capias.
The important thing to remember is that capias or a show cause certainly has ramifications.
Contact Our Office Today
If you’re found guilty of failing to appear in court, the judge can give you jail time so it is definitely a situation where you want give us a call so we can see what we can do for you, and we can help advise you about possible jail time.
If you’re facing a capias for failure to appear or not showing up in court, contact Flusche & Fitzgerald today so we can begin discussing the logistics and the possible outcome.
