Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

It is too late for the prosecutor to file charges against you, but if charges were filed before the limitations period expired (in which case there is probably an outstanding arrest warrant with your name on it) then you can still be prosecuted.

There also may one or more civil default judgments against you, which the plaintiffs may have renewed since then. You would still be responsible for paying any such judgments, plus interest.

If criminal charges were never filed, it is probably too late for the prosecutor to do so. If they were filed, and there is an arrest warrant for you, then you will have to 'deal with it'. You can check with the LA Superior Court criminal clerk's office to see if there is a warrant.

If so, then to handle a warrant you must turn yourself into the court issuing the warrant, with or without an attorney, and try to negotiate a recall of the warrant and a plea bargain on the new �Failure to Appear� charge, negotiate bail or OR, and negotiate any outstanding charges that caused the warrant. Doing so voluntarily will result in a better outcome than being brought in cuffs to court after arrest on the warrant. Effective plea-bargaining, using whatever legal defenses, facts and sympathies there may be, including passage of time living a 'clean' life, could possibly keep you out of jail/prison, or at least dramatically reduce it. If this is a felony, the defendant must be personally present at every court hearing and appearance. If this is a misdemeanor, the attorney can appear in court without the defendant being present. Unless you're competent to effectively represent yourself in court against a professional prosecutor trying to put you in jail, most people hire an attorney who can. If serious about hiring counsel to help you in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me.

There are some facts that are not clear so let me just say the following; 1) If you were arrested and charges were filed and you appeared in court and then failed to appear at a later appearance, or you bailed out and never appeared, then the case is still good and you should deal with it. 2) If you were never charged when the acts occurred, and then you left the jurisdiction, and then shortly thereafter a case was filed against you on these charges, the question for a judge to decide, to see if the case can proceed or must be dismissed is; Did law enforcement use "due dilligence" to attempt to locate you in a timely fashion. If a judge feels that law enforcement did, in fact, use "due diligence",ie sent letters to last known address, went to last known address and left a card or canvassed the neighborhood. etc, then the case may still proceed. If, on the other hand, "due diligence" is not found by the judge, the case would be dismissed. I hope that helps...David Wallin