Failure to Appear for a Criminal Court Date in Indiana

Transcript:

In this video, I'm gonna be talking about what happens if you fail to appear for a criminal court date in Indiana and what you should do about it if you do. This is a situation that happens more than you think, and sometimes it's just transportation issues, weather issues or you just got the date wrong, but it's important to know what to do. So about me, my name is Nathan Vining. I'm a criminal defense attorney in Indiana and I represent individuals in criminal cases throughout the state of Indiana. By the end of this video, you should know what to do if you fail to appear for a criminal court date in Indiana.

So let's say you have a court date and you miss it for some reason and you don't have an attorney and don't know what to do. The first thing you should do if this happens is call the court. A lot of courts have hearings all day. So maybe your hearing was at 8:30 but the court's gonna be in session till 4:00, so it's very possible for the court staff to fit you into a different time of the day. If this happens and you have an attorney, you should call them and let them know what's going on. A lot of times, they can go to court at the right time, let the judge know that there's a problem, and then get the court date set at a later date. A lot of times, the court will say, "I'm gonna hold a warrant under advisement pending the fact that you actually come to the next court date." So if you don't come to the next court date, there's likely gonna be a warrant for your arrest at that time.

So if you realized you missed a court date and it's too late and you already have a warrant for your arrest, there still are a couple of things you can do. The first thing to do is to go online and look at mycase.in.gov to see if there's any ability to post a bond. If there's an ability to post a bond, you can go in and surrender yourself and post a bond and then be on your way, and you're gonna get a new court date that you should remember and show up to at the right time the next time. Sometimes, though, the court will issue a no bond hold. If there's a no bond hold, what you should do is contact an attorney. What they can do is file what's known as a motion to recall the warrant. It's a simple motion and what it does is it lets them know where you reside, why you missed court, and gives assurance as to why this is an isolated issue and ask that the court take the warrant off and schedule you for a future court date.

These motions can be effective and a lot of times, the motion can be recalled so you can just appear at a court date later without going to jail. If the motion to recall isn't successful, another thing that your attorney can likely to do is contact the court and schedule a time for your surrender. What that happens is is you can surrender when court's in session so you can go and appear before the judge and explain what happened and hopefully not get taken into jail.

And before we close, it's important to note that there's potential criminal penalties for missing a criminal court date in Indiana. It's Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-9 that essentially states if a defendant intentionally fails to appear for court, it can be a Class A misdemeanor. People are rarely charged under the statute but it goes to show how important knowing when your court date is and going to court at the right time is.

So now, you should know what you should do if you miss a court date. And that's essentially if you know you're gonna miss, call the court and your attorney, try and let everyone know what's happening. If that's too late and a warrant's been issued, try and recall the warrant or set up a time to surrender. One of the worst things you can do is let the warrant remain active and not do anything about it to address it. What it does is it makes getting released in the future harder because the court shows that you're not willing to turn yourself in if there's a problem, and it maybe show the court that you're a flight risk. So if you have questions, give me a call or text me or you can watch more videos to understand more about the criminal court process in Indiana.