Victorian
Demerit points law, licence suspension and the legal options for
drivers.
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Warrants
of Arrest
You
are probably reading this because you are freaking out at the thought
of a warrant of arrest being issued in your case.
Almost all traffic offences are summary offences, which means they
don't carry more than 6 months jail and can be heard in a Magistrates
Court. There are two ways that a person can be asked to
attend court for a summary offence: the police can serve a charge and
summons, or the police can arrest a person and serve a charge.
A warrant of arrest can be issused by the court in two different circumstances. Firstly, if the police can not locate a person to serve them with a charge and
summons then the police can file a charge at court and apply to the court for a
warrant of arrest. In traffic matters, if a warrant of arrest is issued by the court within
12 months of the date of the offence, then a court proceeding has
commenced within the statutory period. In this situation, the warrant
is issued because the police are unable to serve you with a charge and
sumons. Issuing a warrant is an alternative to being served with a
summons.
Alternatively, a warrant of arrest can be issued by the court after a
summons has been issued and served if the accused does not appear at
court in answer to the summons. This is called a bench warrant.
Most people who are served with a summons for a traffic offence are
under no obligation to attend court. Attendance at court is optional.
On the face of the summons you will see two boxes "You should go to
court" and "You must go to court". In 99% of traffic cases it is
the "Should go to court" box that is ticked. And it is true. You should
go - but you don't have to. You commit no offence by ignoring that type
of summons.
When a person who is on summons fails to appear at court either in
person or by legal representative the Magistrate has options. He or she
can sometimes hear the case in the absence of the accused, or adjourn
the case to a later date, or if the court feels that the accused should
be required to attend court, then the magistrate can issue a warrant
for the arrest of the accused. The only way that a magistrate can
oblige a person to attend court in person is to issue a warrant of
arrest.
A summons is an invitation to come to court, while a warrant turns that
into an obligation to attend the court. A person served with a summons
has no obligation to go to court. But once you have been arrested and
bailed, then you must attend the court at each date the case is listed.
That is the sole difference between having a warrant issued and not
having a warrant issued. If turning up at court was something you
already anticipated having to do, then nothing has changed. After you
are arrested, you will be bailed on your own undertaking to attend
court on a specified date. There will never be any need for a surety.
If you did not freak out when you knew the police might knock
on your door to serve you with a charge and summons then there is no
need to freak out at the thought that the police might knock on your
door to execute a warrant of arrest. It is almost exactly the same
thing - a notice ot attend court - except this time you have to go to the police station with them to sign off on it.
Every year many of my clients are subject to warrants of arrest after
they have been charged with traffic offences. Some of them
intentionally failed to appear at court, sometimes for very good strategic or practical reasons. Others
waste a lot of their time - and mine - needlessly freaking out at the concept of being
the subject of an arrest warrant when it unexpectedly occurs. They should have been freaking out at
the concept of being the subject of charges. The warrant of arrest is a
trivial formality compared with the laying of charges. A
warrant of arrest has no adverse impact whatsoever on your case, or your record, or your
life - save that it will oblige you to attend a Magistrates Court
in person.
The warrant authorises the police
to arrest you and bring you before the court. In practice the police
are likely to knock on your door before or after business hours
and require you to go to the police station with them to sign the bail
notice. Usually
a warrant of arrest is executed by the police telephoning you and
asking you to attend a police station at a convenient time to sign a
bail notice.
They don't like wasting their time driving around to your place. You
are not obliged to present yourself at the police station to have the
warrant executed. Your option is to go to the police station at a time
convenient to you, or ignore them and wait for them to knock on your
door at a time convenient to them. If they cannot find you at your
last known address, the warrant will be lodged in the police computer
system. Then it could be ages before the police locate you, usually
when they next intercept you driving a car or when you next commit
an offence.
Usually the police who contact you to execute the arrest warrant will
complain to you about your failure to attend court. They will imply
that you have stuffed up. They are whinging because
they now have extra work to do that they feel is "unnecessary". They
will say "you should have gone to court", because if you had been at
court then they would not be knocking on your door for the third
time trying to find you. Regardless how much they
complain, be assured you have done nothing wrong. You need not be
in the slightest bit concerned that the police have to spend some
moments of
their time dealing with the court process that they instigated. In most
cases it is the police prosecutor at court who has requested the
warrant to be issued. Prosecutors know full well that by choosing the
warrant option they are giving the informant this extra work.
When
the warrant is executed the police need to be able to prove that they
have arrested the right person. So they will require ID. Sometimes they
might also request fingerpints or photographs. This is so they can
prove in court that they arrested the correct person in the event that
you still do not turn up at court.
When you sign
the bail notice it will state your new court date. You can try to
negotiate the timing of the new court date with them so it is on a date
when you are able to attend court. You should just be polite and cooperative, say as little as possible and accompany them to the police station. Your stay at the police station will take about 15 minutes. If
you are pleasant about it, the police might offer to drive you home afterwards.
If you
want to the warrant executed as soon as possible, you can call the
informant and [try to] arrange for it to be executed at your convenience. You will probably get a
new court date within a few weeks.
It is important to recognise that a bench warrant is not issued because you have done
anything wrong. It is issued because the court has no other way to
force you to attend the court.
So if you are freaking out about the warrant, then you are far too late. The
serious part of your case was the filing of the charges. Deciding which method is
used to bring you to court is a relatively trivial part of the court
process. Provided you are present in court when the case is next listed
no magistrate will care one iota whether a warrant has been issued or whether you appear on summons or on bail.
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