SoCal Warrants – True Stories

When law enforcement: police, sheriff, federal agents arrest someone, they take him or her to jail. Sometimes you can face charges without being arrested, but usually you are arrested first and then charged with a crime.

When you go to jail after being arrested, one of three things happens:

The defendant is released if the prosecutor(typically a District Attorney or City Attorney) decides not to file charges.

The defendant posts bail or is released without bail (O.R. or “own recognizance”) based on a promise to appear in Court at a later date.

The defendant does not post bond and is transported to and from Court by the jail.

You usually learn what charges come from the arrest at the arraignment, which is the first Court date you will have after being arrested. The purpose of the arraignment is to advise you of what charges you are facing. Hiring a criminal defense attorney like me to come to the arraignment is an important step in trying to resolve the charges from your arrest.

1. You are probably reading this because someone told you that you have criminal warrants. Maybe it was a police officer at a traffic stop, a potential employer after running a background check or a letter from the DMV suspending your license. The FIRST thing you need to do is LOCATE the warrant. This is the first thing I can help you with, although you can also locate your own criminal warrants. The key is to figure out which county and courthouse has your criminal warrants. From there, it’s simply a question of looking in their computer system.
2. Next, you need to figure out WHAT the criminal warrants are FOR. There are many different types of criminal warrants: Failure to appear, traffic, misdemeanor, felony, probation revocation. Most criminal warrants result from a missed court date. ALL Courts require you to come to Court to clear a warrant unless you hire me.
3. Finally you need to CLEAR the criminal warrants. You can get yourself on the Court calendar (Not impossible but harder in the COVID era) OR you can hire me. Prices range from 500 to over 10 thousand for a serious felony. Generally, it costs 500 to clear a probation revocation, traffic and some lesser misdemeanor criminal warrants. Misdemeanor criminal warrants, for driving under the influence (VC23152(a)), domestic violence (273.5), or driving on a suspended license (14601.1) cost anywhere between 1000 and 5000. Felony criminal warrants, for open felony cases, start at 5000. Payment plans are ok.

Were you or a loved one recently criminally arrested? Do you want to figure out how to handle a criminal arrest? Give me a call, I’m an experienced lawyer who helps people with their criminal arrests.

A criminal arrest is the most common way a person experiences the world of criminal defense attorneys. Not every arrest ends up with a crime being charged. There are two common experiences caused by criminal arrests: The experience of the person who is arrested on suspicion of a crime and the experience of the people who are concerned about them. That means partners, parents and sometimes friends.

The ThreeTypes of Arrest: Overnight, Seventy Two Hours and Arraignment

There are three types of arrests grouped by the length of the arrest and whether the individual is released or not. All arrests share some features: A person is transported to a jail facility and “booked” into that facility until they are released. They can be released by law enforcement (overnight), held for up to seventy two hours and then released or held until they are presented to Court, called an “arraignment.” For many arrests, the individual is allowed to post a bond to be released until Court.

The vast majority of arrests are overnight. A common example is being arrested for a crime like driving under the influence or domestic violence. The day after, the individual is released, usually because of a blanked policy by the facility to release certain categories of prisoners based on the crime. Individuals arrested in this fashion will be given a future court date, but that does not mean they will be charged with a crime on that date.

For more serious cases, where there is no category of automatic release after a night in jail, an individual can be held for up to three days. If the Prosecutor decides not to file charges at that time, the person is released. In these situations a bond will usually be set, allowing the arrested person to bail out before the end of three days.

The most serious criminal arrests end with the arrested person appearing in Court for a first court appearance, called an Arraignment. At this hearing, the arrested person will either hire a lawyer OR have a Public Defender appointed. The Prosecutor has an opportunity to raise the bail amount and the arrested person (now a defendant) has the right to make their own argument for bail. Cases that make it this far often require the involvement of friends and family while the arrested person sits in jail.

Everyone has questions about the consequences of a criminal arrest. I can answer those questions as a lawyer who helps you with criminal arrests.

I get calls everyday from people who need help with their criminal warrants fast. People need their criminal warrants cleared for many reasons. Some people are trying to pass a background check. Others have a job that says they will be fired if they don’t take care of their criminal warrant. As a lawyer who specializes in clearing criminal warrants, there are a few questions I always want to ask.

If you need to fix a criminal warrant, hiring me to handle your criminal warrant is the best way to fix the problem. As a criminal warrant attorney, I have faster access to the court system than regular folks. The best way to fix your criminal warrant fast in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Riverside or San Bernardino county is to call or text me at 323 645 0697.

First, find your warrant using the Orange County Sheriff Arrest Warrants Search Engine here.

If you have an Orange County Warrant, I can clear it for you. You can call or text me at 1 323 645 0697. Check out my five star Yelp profile. I’ve cleared warrants in every Courthouse in Orange County.

You should STRONGLY consider hiring a lawyer to clear your Orange County warrant. The Judges in Orange County do not hesitate to throw people in jail over their warrants- even for the smallest mistakes, even during the pandemic. Arrest and Bench warrants are taken very seriously in Orange County and you don’t want to go to jail simply because you didn’t hire a lawyer.

The Judges in Orange County do not automatically give you a public defender, they make you fill out an affidavit about your financial situation and may deny you a public defender if they think you make too much money.

The first thing to know about federal arrest warrants is that federal agencies do not call over the phone and tell you that you have federal arrest warrants. The IRS, Social Security, the Treasury Department- they will all communicate important matters by mail, so anyone calling and saying you have federal arrest warrants is lying.

In fact, it is unlikely that you will know about federal arrest warrants before you are arrested because they are typically kept secret, and only made public after the individual sought by the warrant is arrested. Federal arrest warrants are often proceeded by lengthy investigations, lasting years, so it is normal to be in a state of suspense about whether there are existing federal arrest warrants for a specific individual.

I can be of great use to people BEFORE they are arrested for on federal arrest warrants. The first step is to try to establish a line of contact with either an investigating agency or federal prosecutor. Another important reason to hire a lawyer before you are subject to federal arrest warrants: You can only invoke your 5th amendment right not to speak if you have a specific lawyer representing you- a general request to “talk to a lawyer” is not enough to stop an interrogation.

Do you have a question about federal arrest warrants? I have twenty years experience dealing with federal arrest warrants in New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Seattle, Texas, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Text me using the button on this post!

Los Angeles is a huge area for warrants. There are many different court houses in the city and county of Los Angeles, and all of them have their own system for clearing a Los Angeles warrant. Fortunately, Los Angeles is one of the easiest places to clear a warrant, especially compared to other Southern California counties like San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura. Before covid, Los Angeles warrants could be cleared the same day, now they are set two days out.

To clear a Los Angeles warrant, you can either go yourself to the right court house in Los Angeles, or hire me to to go to Court for you. There are many advantages to hiring a lawyer for a Los Angeles warrant, but the biggest advantage is not necessarily having to go to Court for your Los Angeles warrant. Many Los Angeles warrants can be cleared without the client needing to come to Court.