Should You Turn Yourself In?
If you find out that there is a warrant out for your arrest, you face a tough choice. Should you turn yourself in, or should you try to evade the police?
Before you make a decision, you need to know what type of warrant you’re dealing with. California has bench warrants and arrest warrants. If you’re facing a bench warrant, it simply means that you’ve done something, such as missing a court date about driving on a suspended license or for failing to report to jury duty, and a judge has issued a warrant. When it comes to bench warrants, the police don’t usually actively pursue you. They usually wait until you’re pulled over for a traffic violation or they’re called to your home for something. When they run your name and see that there’s a bench warrant out for your arrest, they’ll haul you into jail and book you.
If an arrest warrant has been issued, it means that a police investigation into a crime has revealed enough evidence to arrest and charge you with the offense. This means that the police will be actively looking for you rather than simply waiting for you to cross their path.
While it’s easy to understand the urge to ignore a warrant and take your chances, it’s really not the choice that’s in your best interest. When all is said and done, turning yourself in is the best way to handle the situation. Not only does this resolve the issue, but you also won’t deal with months of the stress connected to looking over your should and waiting for the cops to show up. Most importantly, turning yourself in allows you to maintain control over the situation. Since you’re doing things on your own, you can arrange to have your lawyer with you, you can turn yourself in on a day that’s not normally busy, so you’ll be arraigned right away, and you can prepare your loved ones.
Perhaps the best thing about turning yourself in is that your willingness to respond to the warrant will likely impress the judge and inspire them to set a low bail.
Another thing you can do when you decide to turn yourself in is to contact Monrovia Bail Bonds before you’re charged. While we won’t be able to write a bail bond before you’re arraigned, we can answer all of your questions, go over the bail bond contract with you, and even determine if you’ll likely need a co-signer or collateral to secure your bail bond.
The great thing about doing all of this prior to turning yourself in is that it speeds up the process, so you’ll quickly be released from jail and out on bail.
For a free consultation, click the Chat Now link or call 626-792-1026.
How Does Skip Tracing Work?
Skip tracing is a term that’s used by the bail bond industry. The word skip refers to a client who has skipped a mandatory court date. Since that’s a direct violation of their bail bond contract, we’re responsible for finding, or tracing, them.
The main component of skip tracing is using technology to collect information that will help us track down our missing clients. Much of what we need is actually provided by the client when they fill out their application. The information that we use to do this includes:
- Phone numbers
- Utility bills
- Airport travel records
- Cell phone information
- Credit card statements
Basically, anything that we can legally obtain that helps us pin down the missing client. We will also sometimes contact people who are connected to our absent client, especially the person who co-signed for their bail bond and the client’s employers, to learn if they happen to know where they’re located.
While there are some exceptions, it usually doesn’t take us very long to find the missing client. Once we find the client, we have no choice but to return them to jail. Once we’ve brought them back, we’re able to collect the bail bond we put up for them.
The good news is that as long as you follow all the terms of your bail, attend all your court dates, and stay in communication with us, you won’t ever become a skip or have to worry about us launching a skip trace process for you.