A lot of people contact me in panic after receiving a citation from the police department, which states something along the lines of needing to turn themselves in or, call the court in a short period of time.
These tickets are boiler plate and are handed out for different offenses with different timetables. The majority of the time, the "due date" is a mere fiction, and the court doesn't even have a file open on your charges by that period of time, but there are occasions where failure to show up or call by that date could lead an arrest warrant.
When these clients contact me I explain that it's very likely that as an attorney I would be able to waive this reporting requirement, and call a timeout on the case. Let the police, prosecutor and court know that you've hired an attorney who is taking over all communication, and is tracking the case. The court is likely to set the case for a pretrial or an arraignment/pretrial combination where we can address everything.
These tickets are boiler plate and are handed out for different offenses with different timetables. The majority of the time, the "due date" is a mere fiction, and the court doesn't even have a file open on your charges by that period of time, but there are occasions where failure to show up or call by that date could lead an arrest warrant.
When these clients contact me I explain that it's very likely that as an attorney I would be able to waive this reporting requirement, and call a timeout on the case. Let the police, prosecutor and court know that you've hired an attorney who is taking over all communication, and is tracking the case. The court is likely to set the case for a pretrial or an arraignment/pretrial combination where we can address everything.
