How to Find Out If a Court Arrest Warrant Has Been Issued, and What to Do Next

If you fail to show up for court after you have agreed or been ordered to do so, a court arrest warrant will likely be issued for you. What exactly does this mean to you? Will the SWAT Team be kicking down your door to arrest you? Is it safe to leave the house? Should you turn yourself in? First you will need to find out if a court arrest warrant has even been issued. If so, what happens next depends on a lot of things.

Finding out if a court arrest warrant has been issued is as easy as picking up the telephone and calling the clerk of courts office. They will be able to inform you exactly what measures have been taken by the court, and they should be able to tell you who holds the court arrest warrant, too. The arrest warrant may have been passed on to the city police or the county sheriff. Maybe both authorities hold your warrant, as well as the state patrol, the FBI, the Federal Marshall's office. The list of law enforcement authorities who can arrest you on a court arrest warrant is quite exhaustive. Who holds your warrant depends largely on what your crime was and how badly the court wants you arrested.

If you failed to appear in court for a minor traffic ticket and a court arrest warrant was filed, then it is possible that the police will knock on your door looking for you. It is more likely, however that they will simply wait for you to make a mistake, like not using your turn signal, and arrest you when they pull you over. If you are a suspected terrorist, however, then you can expect heavily armored men in black masks and big guns serving the court arrest warrant.

Once you have found out that a court arrest warrant has been issued, it is always best to turn yourself in immediately to the authorities that hold the warrant. The first reason for turning yourself in is that you won't have to constantly be looking over your shoulder to see if someone is there ready to slap on the cuffs. You will also be treated much better when you cooperate, both by the arresting authorities as well as when you show up for court. Many times when you turn yourself in for a court arrest warrant, your sentence will be much lighter than if you evaded the warrant and the authorities had to hunt you down.

Often court arrest warrants and records are available online. Try looking up the court you were supposed to appear in and see if they have an online records search. Simply type in the information it asks for, usually your name, address, social security number, etc. Any records of court arrest warrants, as well as other records about you, will come up. This information might include the date that the court arrest warrant was issued, if and when it expires, and who is authorized to serve the court arrest warrant.

How Can I Check Someone's Driver's License Records?

There are quite a lot of reasons why people check for someone else's driver's license records. One popular reason is employment. Another reason might be a private investigator doing a comprehensive background check.

Regardless of the reason, it is nearly impossible for you to get a person's driver's license records unless they provide you with a written permission. However, if you have a valid reason, such as checking someone's driving records before you employ them, then you will need to fill out a request form called the Requester Release and Affidavit of Intended Use. There are specified criteria here that you should qualify for in order for you to request for the record.

If you meet the criteria, then you will need to fill it out and send it to your local Division of Motor Vehicles office. Here are some of the criteria that you should be able to qualify for in order for you to request for someone else's driving records.

The first is that the record should be requested by a government agency, including law enforcement agency. Another is that is should be by an agency charged with motor or driver vehicle safety insurance.

It can also be obtained by a business which will use the information to verify the accuracy of the information submitted by certain individuals to prevent fraud.

These are the things that you should remember about checking someone's driving records. As you can see, you first need to have a valid reason and you also have to qualify for the criteria stated on the Requester Release and Affidavit of Intended Use.

Now if you need to check driving records as part of a background check, there are other ways to do so. For example, if a person has been convicted of a driving related crime, such as driving under the influence (DUI) or reckless driving, the records may be part of the public court records and would easily be obtained in a public records search.

Public record searches can be done in a variety of ways. If you knew the county the person resided in or may have committed a driving related crime in, you could visit the courthouse and search records yourself. As you can tell, this could be a tedious process, but it should not cost you anything.

A more realistic approach is to conduct an online background check. There are a number of sites which will do this for you. All you need is some information, such as the full name, address and age of the individual. you can then run a background check on the individual. This will not tell you traffic crimes, like speeding or parking violations, but it will tell you the serious stuff.

You can also hire a private investigator. He or she can probably find out the detailed stuff as well as the traffic misdemeanors. This can cost you up to $200 or so depending on the difficulty level of the search.

If you just need to check your own driver's license records to ensure accuracy, you are legally entitled to do so. You just need to visit your local DMV for instructions. It may cost you a minimal fee.