It’s not unusual for people to phone us and ask “do I have a warrant?” We get calls like this regularly. There are few circumstances that could cause you to have a warrant for your arrest. The most common are that you missed a court appearance or the authorities want to arrest you on new charges. How will you know if the police have a warrant for your arrest? There are ways to find out.
Interestingly, most people who have a warrant for their arrest will have an inkling that the police may be looking for them. Their spider senses will be tingling. It can start when the police leave a business card wedged in the front door, or the person misses a call from a blocked number. If you see the police parked near your house, something might be up. Often enough the police will have called and mom answered the phone. If you get a call from your mother while you’re at work, it’s often not good news.
No matter how it happens, most people are aware that something is up and the net is tightening.
Warrants you can see
The most common ways people end up with an arrest warrant is from failing to appear for a court date. Most people who are charged with an offence hire a lawyer to go to court for them. If they don’t hire a lawyer and miss a court date, the Crown prosecutor may apply for a warrant at that point. If they do and the court then orders the issuance of a warrant, it may appear in the official Court Services Online database as a “WI” recorded in the appearances. If this appears in the records alongside your name, you have a warrant for your arrest and you need to deal with it. Call a criminal lawyer right away.
Warrants in the first instance
The other common type of arrest warrant is a warrant in the first instance. These warrants serve a couple of purposes. A warrant in the first instance issues when Crown Counsel approves a charge and the accused has not already been given a document by the police compelling an appearance in court. So it is a method of bringing someone to court to ensure that they know about the charges. Getting someone to court can be accomplished another way, however. They can simply issue a Summons compelling the person to come to court. The key thing about a warrant for arrest is that it accomplishes a dual purpose. It allows the court an opportunity to either consider keeping the accused in jail until the trial or determine appropriate conditions upon which a person can be released.
A good example is domestic violence situations. It may be days, weeks months and occasionally longer when the Crown approves a charge arising from an incident involving an alleged assault, criminal harassment or some other sort of a criminal offence in a family context. When they do, often they are concerned about preserving the integrity of the evidence and protecting the people connected to the incident. In those cases, the Crown will seek a warrant in the first instance. Then, when the subject is arrested they can be released with bail conditions keeping then from contacting any of the other parties or committing another offence.
Can you find out if you have a warrant in the first instance? If your lawyer has a good relationship with the police and is representing you in the investigation, there is a decent chance that your lawyer can find out with a couple of phone calls. Police officers would rather you turned yourself in on a warrant with the assistance of your lawyer. The other option for the police is to go out on the hunt which is a waste of police resources and means the client could be picked up at work, school or some other very inopportune moment.
When are people arrested on a warrant?
If you missed a court date, your lawyer can usually sort it out fairly quickly. It almost always requires a trip down to the courthouse but that’s no big deal if you have your lawyer there making sure it all gets cleaned up quickly and relatively painlessly.
If it’s a warrant in the first instance and you’ve got a lawyer, as we said above very often your lawyer can arrange it so you’re not taken on the perp walk through your office in handcuffs.
What if I have a warrant and I don’t take care of it?
Very rarely does anyone call to ask “do I have a warrant” with the intention of going on the run if there is one. That means most warrants are resolved fairly quickly, that is, if you have a lawyer. If you decide to try to avoid being arrested on a warrant, that’s when things can get unpleasant.
Almost all officers would prefer to avoid embarrassing someone by making an arrest at the person’s place of work or during Christmas diner. But there are times when those are the only places they can be relatively certain to find the subject of an arrest warrant. Some officers actually wait until the afternoon of December 24 or December 31 to pick up people who have warrants for their arrest because they can find and process a number of people on those days fairly quickly.
I may have a warrant. What do I do?
If your spider senses are tingling or you missed your court date, give us a call. If you’re wondering “do I have a warrant?” don’t wait until December 23 to call us. We can usually sort out the warrant fairly quickly to ensure you don’t spend Christmas in jail or have to have an uncomfortable conversation with your family or your employer.
If you think you may have a warrant in British Columbia, pick up the phone and give us a call. We can help you with it.