Vermont Arrest Warrants

"We have a warrant for your arrest." Those words will send a chill down anyone's spine. If they are said directly to you by a police officer there is not much you can do, but hold out your hands to be cuffed. Once an arrest warrant has been issued it is pretty hard to "take it back." The process has to be worked through. Not only will this mean a complete booking at the police station, but you'll also have to appear in court to resolve the matter in front of a judge.

Even if you find yourself in a situation where you surrender to the police based on a warrant, you'll still be walked through the entire arrest process. You could be thinking, "I don't break the law so I never have to worry about an arrest warrant." For most people that is entirely true. Then there are those cases of identity theft where your name is being used for criminal activity. Credit card companies and banks follow the name not the person. If your name has been used in illegal activity it will be you who could face an arrest warrant. Fortunately, you have some options.

Records of Vermont arrest warrants are available online through many various court databases. You can search through most of them free of charge or you can hire an attorney to do a complete record search for you. Two new terms you might discover are bench warrants and felony warrants.

Vermont Bench Arrest Warrant
Bench arrest warrants are directly related to your failure to follow through with a court order. When a bench warrant is sworn out, it means you have already had business with the court system, but for one reason or another you've chosen to ignore that order. Perhaps you simply forget out about it or didn't think it was all that important. The fact remains that in the eyes of the court, you need to finish what you were ordered to do or face more penalties and possible jail time.

Bench warrants are uploaded to databases. When a police officer pulls you over for a traffic stops and takes your license to run a check, this is what they are checking. If a warrant appears by your name, the office will have no choice but to arrest you right away.

Vermont Felony Arrest Warrants
With more severe crimes comes a more severe form of warrant. That would be the felony arrest warrant. This is attached to a person who is a suspect in a major crime. A felony warrant is issued by a judge when they are presented with the evidence of that crime. They can also be presented with an indictment from a grand jury which would end up with the same result.

Unlike a bench warrant, there is a great sense of urgency with carrying out a felony warrant. Once issued, the police are obligated to arrest the person named on the warrant as soon as possible. For patrol officers, it could be part of a daily assignment. For detectives it will mean closing their case.

No matter which type of warrant a person is served with, they will need a lawyer to figure out the best course of action. This is not a matter you want to handle on your own.