You cannot get out of a criminal charge – even a minor criminal charge – by simply skipping your court date. This applies to any preliminary court dates as well as your scheduled trial date. If you fail to appear in court when the court says you are required to appear, you can quickly find yourself in serious hot water. Courts probably dislike being disobeyed even more than they dislike the fact that you committed a criminal offense, or at least have been charged with one. And the potential penalties for failing to appear can be piled on top of penalties for your original offense, which should make you wish you had simply showed up in the first place. A bench warrant is valid statewide, so do not assume that being charged with a crime while on spring break in Galveston will get you off the hook when you go home to Waco.
The Court Can Have You Arrested Simply for Failing to Appear
Not showing up in court, whether for a preliminary hearing or for trial, not only accomplishes nothing, it makes things worse. Many people are not aware of a simple device called a bench warrant. Texas law authorizes judges and magistrates to issue bench warrants for anyone who has committed a violation of Texas law, authorizing their arrest. That includes anyone who fails to appear for a court appearance. Actually, that gives the judge or magistrate two reasons, since the statute allows them to arrest an arrest warrant for a person against whom someone is willing to swear out a complaint that the person violated a Texas criminal statute. Obviously, the prosecutor in your case would be happy to do so. You can be convicted of failure to appear even if you subsequently are acquitted of the charge for which you failed to appear. Think about it.
How Bad Could it be if I Skip a Court Date?
Failure to appear actually could wind up being pretty bad. For starters, you have added a criminal offense to the one with which you were already charged. There are defenses to a charge of failure to appear, but they involve serving the sentence for a prior conviction or a “reasonable excuse.” What is reasonable is up to the court. And if your excuse is not “reasonable,” you could be looking at extra fines or jail time, or both.
If you were charged with a crime punishable only by a fine, your failure to appear will be treated as a Class C misdemeanor, meaning you will be subject to a fine of no more than $500. If you were originally charged with a crime involving potential jail time, failure to appear is a Class A misdemeanor. That carries a punishment of a fine of no more than $4,000, up to a year in jail, or both. Keep in mind, this is in addition to any sentence you might face if convicted of your original charge. And if you fail to appear for a felony charge, that failure to appear is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to a prison term of at least two years, but no more than 10 years, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
If You Fail to Appear for a Court Date in Houston, Talk to Madrid Law Firm
Failing to appear for a court date, whether it is a preliminary hearing, trial, or any other court appearance you are required to attend, is serious business. If you miss a court date, you have defenses, but if you fail to assert them, you can be in serious trouble and should talk to an experienced Houston criminal attorney. You need to talk to the Madrid Law Firm.
