A majority of our criminal and traffic consultations
involve driving without a driver’s license or driving on a suspended
license. In several instances, these
people are undocumented and are too afraid to show up to court for risk of
being deported. Failure to appear in
court for your trial date results in much worse consequences. A failure to appear (FTA) results in the
court issuing a bench warrant for your arrest. In other words, if you ever get
into any more trouble and the police happen to run your name in their database,
they will see there is an outstanding warrant for your arrest and will arrest
you. There will likely be significant
immigration effects.
In
many circumstances, we will have potential clients call us and ask what they
can do to get rid of the arrest warrant and go to court for the charges. The first step we can do is to file a motion
to quash the warrant, and if a judge grants it, the court will recall the
warrant, and then a new court date can be scheduled to defend the charges. Motions to quash are not always granted
though, so if you do not have a legitimate excuse for missing your original
trial date (i.e. changed addresses), it is likely to be denied. At that point, you will have to turn yourself
in to get a new trial date to defend your charges.
When
trying to resolve a driving without a license or driving on a suspended license
case, the best thing to do is to work on getting a license or resolving the
suspension issue. A judge will look more
favorably on someone who is actively trying to obtain a driver’s license or
trying to resolve the suspension.
If
you have been charged with a crime in Maryland, call us today to speak to one
our experienced Maryland criminal defense attorneys for a free consultation or if you would like more information please feel free
to contact our office at (301) 854-9000 and schedule an appointment at our
office in Baltimore or throughout Maryland, or visit us on the web
at http://www.portnerandshure.com/Maryland-Criminal-Defense/
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