Unable to make your court appearance? Whether you are in the midst of a civil lawsuit or facing a criminal charge, it is a mistake to simply not appear at a court date. In a civil case, your failure to show up could result in a default judgment entered against you. In criminal cases, the failure to appear is a criminal offense that can result in a warrant for your arrest. While it may be possible to reschedule your court date, know that the judge will ultimately make that decision – and every judge is different.
Unable to Make Court Appearance – What Are Your Options?
There are a few options available when you cannot make a court appearance. Ultimately, it is your decision how you should proceed. That said, some of these choices could carry serious consequences.
1. Re-arrange Your Schedule
Can you genuinely not make it to court, or would court just be an enormous burden? This is a question you should ask yourself. After all, what is more important than a court proceeding? If you cannot miss court due to work, your best option is to ask for time off. If that is not an option, you may be facing a tough decision between risking your employment and risking your freedom. Consider trying to make the court appearance work before you exhaust an of the other options, however.
2. Contact The Other Side
Sometimes rescheduling a court hearing is simple. After all, attorneys agree to continuances every day. If you are acting as your own attorney, there is nothing stopping you from reach out to the legal counsel on the other side to ask about rescheduling.
In civil cases, this can be fairly common. As long as a trial date is not looming or the case has not been stagnant for a long period of time, the court will often grant a continuance as long as opposing counsel does not object. For criminal cases, this process can be more difficult. Often, prosecutors will not discuss a case with an unrepresented person outside of court. Some judges that manage criminal dockets are also hostile to any delays given the risk of backing up an already busy docket. Contact the other side may be your best chance at working out a continuance, but success is never guaranteed.
3. File a Motion
In some courts, an informal request to reschedule your hearing is not sufficient. It may be necessary to file a formal written motion giving the reason you are unable to attend a scheduled hearing. This motion must apply with state and local rules, and it may require some research to get right. A judge has no obligation to grant your motion, so filing one will not guarantee success.
4. Call a Lawyer
An attorney could help this situation in a number of ways. First and foremost, an attorney could appear on your behalf in many cases. Outside of trial dates, most of your appearances in civil cases can be handled by your attorney. In some situations your attorney can appear on your behalf in criminal cases as well.
What’s more, an experienced attorney can advise you on what to expect. Is the judge you are in front of indifferent on continuances? Your attorney can tell you. Is your judge a stickler and will deny most requests to reschedule a court date? Your attorney can tall you.
5. Don’t Show Up
This might be an option, but that doesn’t make it a good option. If you are missing a hearing in a criminal case, you can expect to face additional charges and an arrest warrant. If you have missed a criminal court date before, you might find it difficult to bond out of jail next time.
Missing a civil court date should also be avoided. In many cases, the court will decide the case in your absence, granting a judgment in favor of the other side by default. Even if the court does not issue a judgment against you, there could be other consequences related to your failure to appear at a scheduled hearing. If you are out of options and cannot appear in court despite your best efforts to reschedule, hiring an attorney is your safest course of action.
Can I Reschedule My Court Date?
Whether you can reschedule your court date depends entirely on the judge your case is in front of. In some courts, rescheduling minor hearings can be done online with little difficultly. In other courts, a judge might refuse to reset a hearing short of a genuine emergency.
One way you can determine your best course of action is to contact the court directly. While they can’t give you legal advice, they might point you to where you can learn what steps might be required. If they make it clear the judge will only consider written motions to reschedule, you will need to determine how to do that or hire an attorney to help you.
See Also: Turning Yourself In for a Misdemeanor Warrant
Verdict
If you are unable to make court appearance, there is a chance you can reschedule your court date. You should never assume the court will agree to this, however. Remember: even if you have a great excuse you are likely to be facing an arrest warrant if you just don’t show up. Contact the court as early as possible to learn what your options are. If you are out options and the court will not reschedule your hearing, hiring an attorney may be the only way to avoid losing your civil case or facing an arrest warrant for failure to appear on a criminal charge.
