Warrants are orders from a judge authorizing police to detain (arrest) a person for a criminal act; failing to appear in court to answer charges; or otherwise failing to follow court orders. If you received a ticket and failed to appear in court or didn’t pay out the fine by the designated date, you may have had a bench warrant issued for you. If you do have an outstanding warrant in your name, you will be arrested and taken to jail.
Generally, bench warrants issued for misdemeanors are not actively searched by police. A warrant has no expiration date and may remain in effect for many years before acted upon during a subsequent traffic stop or other interaction with law enforcement.
State warrant laws for traffic violations have changed
A new law took effect in Nevada on October 1, 2019, which put in place a 30-day grace period from a missed court date, to pay out a ticket if the defendant failed to appear in court for a minor traffic violation (anything other than reckless driving, vehicular homicide, or DUI, or if the person is an habitual offender). During the grace period, the defendant must be given the opportunity to pay out the ticket through community service prior to the issuance of the bench warrant. If, after the grace period the ticket remains unpaid, or the defendant has not made arrangements to perform community service, the court may issue a bench warrant, although the legislature has stated that arrests for minor traffic violations should generally not result in incarceration.
Warrants do not expire, and many have found that warrants issued years ago can still be in force, as they are unexpectedly arrested. The new law only covers cases which occur after the October 1, 2019 effective date. If you have warrants from prior to the effective date of the new law, they may still be active.
If I have outstanding warrants, what can be done about it?
Ticket Busters can do a search of the local courts to see if you have any outstanding warrants. A process exists to deactivate the warrant if a warrant is active. This process is known as “quashing” the warrant. If you pursue this process, your lawyer will file a motion to have the warrant quashed with the court which initially issued the warrant. Upon review, the court may order the warrant quashed. Only once the quashing order is issued, will the warrant be removed from police databases. Once the warrant is deactivated, you can then deal with the underlying infraction(s) without fear of arrest.
Ticket Busters represents those with outstanding warrants
If you know or think you may have outstanding warrants for your arrest, Ticket Busters can assist in the process of quashing the warrants. We specialize in DUI’s, traffic tickets, warrants and criminal defense. Call our office today to have past warrants cleared so you won’t be arrested. Call (702) 666-6666 or click the green button at the bottom of the page to text us your information.
