I missed Court? What do I do?

I missed Court! What do I do?

If you’ve been given a "notice to appear", or have been told to attend court on a particular date and didn’t, you can be charged with a "fail to appear". So, if you think you have missed the court date what can you do to fix the problem?

First of all, if you have a lawyer you should call them immediately and tell them what happened.

The court may have done one or more of the below things:

1. Issued a warrant for your arrest

If you didn’t come to court when you are supposed to, the court can issue a warrant for your arrest to bring you back before the court. Remember, when you are placed on bail, you promised to come back to the court on the date it sets. By failing to come to court, you have broken a promise (your bail).

1. list the matter for another mention with you to appear on that date

The court may have adjourned the matter for another mention date and ordered you appear on that occasion. If this has occurred, you are lucky, and a warrant has not yet been issued.

3. Issued a warrant for your arrest, but delayed the warrant until another date.

The court may have issued a warrant, but it is to “lay on the file” until another date.

If you do not come to court on the next date then the warrant will be released (this means sent to the police for them to apprehend you).

What to do next

If you have missed court, and the court has issued a warrant for your arrest here are some the practical steps that you can take (beyond the obvious which is call your lawyer immediately).

1. Call the court where missed the date at, let them know that you had a court date you have missed and ask “would this court prefer me to attend the registry or to surrender at a police station?”Some courts will allow you to attend the front counter and the charges will go back to the court for you to explain why you missed court and to progress the matter. Alternatively, you may be required to hand yourself into a police station for the warrant to be executed.

 

If this happens, you will either be processed through the watch-house and placed on a new bail undertaking, given a notice to appear with another court date for you to attend or kept in the watch-house for a bail application to be made.

 

2. You will be required to tell the court why you missed the last court date. If it was for a medical reason, have a doctor’s note and all medical records that show you were in hospital, sick or the reason why you could not attend on that date. Ideally, a doctor’s note should not just say words to the effect of “ a medical condition” but provide a little bit of detail as to why you were unable to attend court.

In a perfect world, you would never miss a court date. Unfortunately, if you miss a court date and the court is not convinced as to why you didn’t appear you can be charged with failing to appear.

The maximum penalty for a fail to appear is 2 years imprisonment. The real problems occur later, where for whatever reason you need to apply for bail, a fail to appear on your history might mean the court is less likely to grant bail than if you didn’t.

Even worse, if you have multiple fails to appear on your criminal history applying for bail become significantly more difficult.

If you have missed a court date you should absolutely call your lawyer as soon as possible.