What is an Outstanding Warrant?

What is an Outstanding Warrant?

An outstanding arrest warrant is an issued arrest warrant that has not been served or carried out. This may be caused by a suspected criminal intentionally evading law enforcement, a suspected unintentionally unaware of the warrant out for him or her or the agency responsible for delivering the warrant has other outstanding warrants to serve, among other reasons.

Numerous places have implemented laws that restrict people with outstanding warrants from entering certain premises or undergoing certain procedures such as driver license application or passport or visa application.

What happens if a person should have an outstanding warrant?

In cases that the suspected criminal successfully evades a previous arrest warrant and manages to elude its implied sentence of arrest and detention, should the suspected criminal be caught for any other crime unrelated to the issued crime or come in contact with police authorities in any way, he or she will still be brought into custody for the outstanding warrants he or she currently has in his or her records.

Moreover, the suspected criminal can be alleged to have been a fugitive, evading law enforcement and such, wherein he or she may have to anticipate tougher penalties at sentencing for the conviction process.

How does a person find out if he or she should have an outstanding warrant?

One could check if he or she has any outstanding warrants in his or her state police websites. Most cases are usually open to public view so it should pose any problem checking through this method. Some cases however are not open to public view. These cases include family cases, juvenile delinquency or any other civil domestic violence cases that may involve protective, peace and restraining orders. For these cases that are not open to public view, one may to check with a bail bondsman or an attorney in order to gain access to an outstanding warrant.

What does a person do if he or she finds out he or she has an outstanding warrant?

Depending on the case, the person can simply opt to show up in court, paying minimal fines. More often than not, attorneys advise this option since the person acts in good faith, thereby allowing smoother procedure for the issue.