Can a warrant be issued for my arrest?

Question

I was in a car accident and taken to the hospital.I never received any tickets.The police drove me home hours after I was released from the hospital because I had no way to get home.Five days later a police officer is calling my home telling me to come into the police station to pick up some tickets or a warrant will be issued for my arrest.Isn't that against some kind of law or harrassment?

Answer 1

You're right, they can't do anything since they left the scene without accusing you of a violation. It's all over with. It sounds like one or more of the officers on the scene ****** up and now they think they can use empty threats to intimidate you into going down to the station and fixing it for them. Ignore them - they are trying to cover their own asses, and if you don't respond they'll give up. But I'm almost certain that they have no legal recourse. What on earth would they charge you with? If they really could track you down and arrest you, why aren't they tracking you down and writing you the tickets? Your first instinct was right on target - doing what they say would be foolish and not in your best interests. What's the worst that could happen?

Edit: Notice that the cop who answered your question below me (Mr. "30+ years") didn't give you any legal reasoning or tell you what you could be arrested for. He's full of **** about a ticket being an arrest - that's absurd. If a ticket was an arrest, you'd be taken to jail. A ticket is simply an officer's account of what happened - you can go to court and contest traffic tickets, essentially forcing them to prove that you did it!

Answer 2

Sure they can issue an arrest warrant....

If you were given a ticket at the scene of the accident and you refuse to sign it, they can arrest you on the spot. For the same reason, if they want to give you a ticket based on the information at later day because of more immediate problem (such as you needing to go to hospital), and tell you to come pick it up, then you don't, they can arrest you by issuing an arrest warrant.

The police officer was nice to you. He took you home from the hospital and didn't bother you with the ticket when you were in pain. Why is this a harassment? You just need to go there and pick it up. This is just a traffic ticket. If you don't agree, you go to court and present your point of view.

Answer 3

It's not harassment and what the police are telling you is true...a warrant can be issued for your arrest if you fail to respond.

What many don't understand is a traffic ticket IS an arrest. When you sign a ticket you are doing two things:

1) Signing a promise to appear in court which is essentially;

2) Signing a signature bond and being released to your own recognizance without going to jail.

If you refuse to sign a ticket...you go to jail!

In your case because you were injured and were taken to the hospital...the police were attempting to help you under the circumstances at the time.

I would strongly suggest you heed the warning and face the music...pick up your tickets!

Answer 4

Yes a warrant can and will be issued for your arrest if you fail to pay the fine. This is called a BENCH warrant, not an Arrest warrant, but you will still be arrested. Your bail will be set for the amount of the fine and depending on the state you live in if you don't pay the fine your license will be suspended. Even if the ticket is for just a couple of bucks. And if your caught driving on a suspended license you could go to jail.

Answer 5

The tickets are your NOTICE TO APPEAR, for which you will have to sign that you agree to show up in court. If you don't take the tickets, then the police have the right to issue a warrent, and then arrest you and hold you until a hearing can be scheduled. This applies whether you are ticketed in the car or ticketed later (as in your current situation)

Just go get 'em.

Answer 6

If you have done no wrong don't panic.

Investigations have been done, go see what the results are.
You are lucky that they did not come and take you down town, that would constitute harrassment.
If you do not comply, a warrant will be issued and a law enforcement officer will and can show up at your door.

Go peacefully and get the results.
Whatever the outcome then discuss further. [e-mail]

Answer 7

somewhat? What are united kingdom officers asserting? "Israel's ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, conferred with officers in the British Ministry of Justice who advised him that they have got been ignorant of any criminal criticism or arrest warrant against the former remote places minister." And Livni? "Livni's workplace mentioned in a fact following the document that her visual attraction on the London adventure replaced into canceled 2 weeks in the past via a scheduling conflict." Who introduced this difficulty up, then? "opposition chief Tzipi Livni on Monday canceled her participation in a Jewish functionality in London, after a warrant for her arrest replaced into issued over section in final iciness's Israel's Gaza offensive, Arab-language media have stated. " ok, first, there's a time discrepancy between the Arab source and Livni's workplace on while she cancelled her participation. 2d, what functionality did Livni somewhat have in the operation? ultimately, the source is Al-Quds Al-Arabi, which i think of could have the chutzpah to print this style of slanderous tale. no person else claims that Livni has a warrant against her. I merely desire Haaretz did a greater effectual activity of highlighting Al-Quds Al-Arabi's idiotic claims.

Answer 8

Against the law, no. There is no law against stupidity. Nor is there any law against testing someone's level of stupidty.

Harassment, no.

Stupidity, oh yes.

There is no law saying that a law-enforcement officer has to issue a ticket immediately following an incident. As with all classifications of crimes, as long as he gets the paperwork rolling so that the arraignment for the incident falls within the time frame specifified in your state's statute of limitaitons, he can take his sweet time.

I can't see your depiction of his actions as being in any way wrong.. up until the part where someone says that if you don't go out of your way to pick up some long-after-the-fact citations, there'll be a warrant issued for your arrest.

It is the prosecution's job to serve you with any summons to court, not your job to do their job for them.

They obviously know where you live, or where do they think he dropped you off after the hospital?

They're just deciding to be lazy bullies is all.

This is nothing new. In one place I've been hauled into court, they actually expected ME to be the one to notify the city prosecutor of my case, threatening me with the exact same kinds of threats of putting a warrant out for my arrest.

I refused.

I wound up being properly served.

They found me guilty of resisting arrest when they arrested me for walking down the sidewalk without even attempting to suggest that I was being placed under arrest... but to date they have never actually set a penalty for that conviction.. because 1) I received the notice of the 'hearing' for the penalty in an envalope postmarked three days AFTER the hearing had apparently been scheduled to occur, and 2) they know that as soon as they place a penalty on it, is when I get to file the appeal and let the state know just how crooked that city's entire government is.

I don't think they'd actually welcome that.

At least in your situation, the badge bearer didn't try to add the insult of citations to the injuries you'd just sustained.

Only if they continue to threaten you with arrest for not doing their job for them would it wind up coming close to being harassment.

Answer 9

If you caused the accident, you get the tickets. If you don't pay the tickets, a warrant for your arrest will be issued.

That's the way it works.

Answer 10

Isn't that against some kind of law or harassment? - No

First, how is that harassment? You are being ticketed. While some jurisdictions allow the ticket to be mailed, others don't. Go get your ticket.