What can I do if I cannot appear in court for a DUI charge?
I got a dui ticket in California and live in Portland. I have no car and no money to make it to court. What can I do? I thought the hearing was over phone, but that was just dmv and not the criminal court. I did not know this and now I cannot get down to court on August 17. I am scared to get a failure to appear but I can neither afford to get there nor can I afford an attorney. Is there anything I can do?
Answered By: Law Office of Geoffrey M. Yaryan
Call the court and explain why you can't be there. I'm afraid you will have a warrant for FTA.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/21/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/21/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Maureen Furlong Baldwin
If you commit a crime in one state and you are living in another so you do not appear in court, you will get a bench warrant. That means you are subject to arrest. Sometimes those can be set aside later, depending on policies in the jurisdiction where you were arrested and your reasons for failure to appear. But ultimately you will have to appear in court or you will get a warrant. Otherwise an attorney can appear for you but you have said you cannot afford one. The clerk cannot move the case to Portland, and assuming you end up pleading guilty, you are likely to have to serve a sentence in CA also. Very difficult for out of state if you cannot get a lawyer
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/18/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/18/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Eric Sterkenburg
You should contact the court and explain your situation. They may work with you on this.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/18/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/18/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Nelson & Lawless
Either you or an attorney must appear, otherwise there will be an arrest warrant issued for failure to appear. If you can’t afford private counsel, you have to personally appear in court in order to request a public defender. Sounds like you missed court, and now have a warrant. Warrants are forever, so don’t ignore the problem or think you can run and hide. To handle a warrant, you must turn yourself into the court issuing the warrant, with or without an attorney, and try to negotiate a recall of the warrant and a plea bargain on the Failure to Appear charge, negotiate bail or, and renegotiate any outstanding charges that caused the warrant, or go to trial. Unless you can win at trial, you face potential jail, fines, license suspension, alcohol programs, etc. Either path or outcome requires you be in CA.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Edward J. Blum
If you can't make it, hire an attorney. He can make all the appearances for you. Lots of attorneys will work with you on price. Even if you missed the date today, the attorney can go tomorrow and recall/quash the bench warrant that has been issued for your arrest. Call me, I can help you with this.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Jeff Yeh
You need to hire an attorney, who is the only type of person who can appear on your behalf without you. Either you appear in court yourself, cough up the money for an attorney, or face an outstanding warrant for your arrest.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: The English Law Firm
You have to be there or hire an attorney. Otherwise, you will get a warrant issued for your arrest and eventually, the authorities would transport you to court.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Peter F. Goldscheider
If you or an attorney does not appear on your behalf a warrant will issue for your arrest. You will need to figure something out.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Offices of Matthew Murillo
Nothing you can do. It seems like you are posting this too late if your Arraignment was today. If you miss your Arraignment, you will have a failure to appear until you or an attorney appears to have it removed and have the case resolved. The Public Defender's office generally requires you to be present at every hearing. A private attorney, however, can and usually does make appearances on behalf of their clients, without their client's having to be present in court. Usually, they can even resolve the case without you having to set foot in court either. This will be the only way to go if you want to avoid, or removed, the failure to appear. Contact a couple of attorneys in the area and see what they are charging. Some may offer payment plans to help with the costs. Or you may be able to borrow some money from friends/family.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Thomas F. Mueller
The only way to avoid coming to court is to hire a lawyer to make the appearance for you. A good lawyer can make all the court appearances in the case and can send you the result with instructions on how to carry out the judges sentence.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Martina Vigil
You can hire an attorney to plead guilty for you if you do not have any available defenses. I would charge considerably less than a full retainer to do this for you. If your court date was today and you did not appear you probably have a warrant out for your arrest. This is very serious and you should take care of this immediately.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Wallin & Klarich
You must hire an attorney who can appear on your behalf throughout the proceedings.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Grasso Law Group
The worst thing to do is to do nothing. You can try a couple things: contact the clerk in the county you were charged and ask for a continuance to give you more time or contact the public defender's office in the county you were charged and see if they can help you. If you don't show up or let the court know the situation, then the judge can issue a bench warrant.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Law Office of Joe Dane
Unfortunately, unless you or an attorney on your behalf appears in court, a warrant will be issued for your arrest. Your best bet is to try and do what you can to find a local criminal defense attorney that routinely practices in the court where your case is and see if they can work out a payment plan or other arrangements with you.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answered By: Wallin & Klarich: A Law Corporation
If your DUI was a misdemeanor charge, then you can hire a CA licensed attorney to appear on your behalf pursuant to Penal Code 977(a). However, if it is felony DUI charge, then you MUST be present for each of your court dates.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
Answer Applies to: California
Replied: 8/17/2011
Disclaimer: The response above does not form an attorney-client relationship. This answer may or may not apply to you and should not be relied upon as legal advice. LawQA does not make any representation as to the expertise or qualifications of this attorney. This attorney may or may not be admitted to state bar of your state.
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