Warrants & Attachments in Louisiana

Warrants and Attachments in Louisiana

This is a guide to understanding warrants and attachments in Louisiana. If you have a warrant in Louisiana, it will not go away until you resolve it. The biggest problem with having an active warrant in the system is that if you are ever pulled over by a police officer, he will run your name and see it. Then, he may arrest you and detain you for weeks until the jurisdiction that got the warrant comes to get you or the time period to hold you runs out. This can be devastating. It happens all of the time.

Arrest Warrant in Louisiana

An arrest warrant is also known as an affidavit warrant or fugitive warrant. It will appear on a criminal background check as a Fugitive Warrant. It is a warrant for an arrest of an individual based on the affidavit of probable cause presented by the police officer to the judge. The judge then signs the warrant authorizing the arrest of the defendant. An arrest warrant is different than a bench warrant which is usually issued by a judge for failure to appear in court.

For example, years ago a Bossier Parish Sheriff obtained an affidavit arrest warrant for your arrest because you were accused of using someone’s credit card without their authorization. The officer obtained a signed warrant from a judge to arrest you based on the charges of Theft and Access Device Fraud. Let’s say you live out of state now in Texas. One day, you are driving to work and school with the kids in the car. An officer pulls you over for running a stop sign.  He runs your name from your driver’s license. The system shows a hit for an active felony arrest warrant out of Bossier Parish. The police officer detains you and calls for someone to pick up your children.  You then sit in the jail for two weeks in Texas awaiting extradition to Louisiana. You cannot make bond because bonds are not set for this. But, the Bossier Sheriff never comes to get you. You are then released because Texas doesn’t want to hold you anymore. Every county has a time limit they will hold you. Now you are out of jail. However, the arrest warrant is still active. You could get arrested again and go through the same ordeal unless you turn yourself in to the Bossier Parish Jail.

As a criminal defense law firm, we deal with this situation daily. It happens very often. We advise anybody who has an active arrest warrant to contact us immediately to start the process of getting you turned in or seeing if we can handle it so you can get this burden off of you.

How Do You Make an Arrest Warrant Go Away?

In most cases, the only way to make an arrest warrant in Louisiana go away is to turn yourself in to the jail of the parish where the warrant was obtained. We highly recommend hiring a warrant defense attorney before you do this. We offer Pre-arrest Phase legal services to our clients with arrest warrants which include assisting in the process of turning yourself in and getting a bail set.

Remain Silent

Our lawyers will reach out to the arresting officer and prevent any questioning of you. Without our help, the police officer will try to get you to confess to the alleged crime while he is booking you. This is a very sensitive situation. We will communicate with the officer to establish the best time and method for you to turn yourself in. In some instances, we can get the officer to agree to issue a summons to you in lieu of having to be booked and bonded. This is reserved mostly for misdemeanor cases.

Set Bail

Once you have been booked on the charges, the judge will need to set bail. Our criminal lawyers know how to approach judges regarding this sensitive issue to get the lowest bail possible. Keep in mind, your bail amount may be lower if you turn yourself in versus if you are extradited and brought before the judge. The judge may view you as a flight risk. On the other hand, if you turn yourself in and you have an attorney, the judge may view you as someone here to take care of your business. Nevertheless, other factors play a role in the amount of bail such as facts, type of charge, criminal record, etc.

Bench Warrant & Attachment in Louisiana

Bench warrants or attachments differ from arrest warrants because bench warrants are issued from the bench, meaning in open court. For instance, a defendant has a speeding ticket that he never paid nor did he appear at court on the date on his summons. The judge may issue a bench warrant or attachment for the individual for failure to appear in court. It has the same effect as a fugitive warrant. If you are picked up on it, you could be in jail for weeks.

How to Make a Failure to Appear Attachment Go Away

If the case is a misdemeanor, you may be able to hire our firm to go to court and ask the judge to recall the attachment without your presence. This isn’t possible in every situation since all cases are different. For instance, you have a misdemeanor weed possession charge in Shreveport City Court that you never appeared for because you live in Florida now.  We may be able to get that warrant recalled without you coming to Louisiana. You may need to come to a later court date. It just depends on the case.

If you have a bench warrant for failure to appear on a felony charge, you can hire us on the case and we can go with you to request the attachment be recalled. Many times, we can keep the judge from remanding you for failure to appear. There are several options we may have depending on the judge, prosecutor, charges, facts of the case, and the defendant’s circumstances.

 Warrant Lawyer in Louisiana

At the Barkemeyer Law Firm, our warrant defense lawyers work with clients on a daily basis to make their warrants go away. Take a look at our practice areas and reach out to us with your questions. Take a look at our firm overview page too to learn more about what we offer.

Since we are strictly a criminal defense law firm, we know all the ins and outs of the criminal justice system and how to get through this difficult time of dealing with a warrant. If you have a warrant in Louisiana, feel free to contact us for representation.

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You should now have a better understanding of warrants and attachments in Louisiana.