Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Have an attorney appear on it to clear the warrant and handle the probation violation (P/V.)

Or, if the warrant is recent and you now have the money, time (or whatever was lacking), and if you haven't had any other P/V's on the case, you can risk walking in on it yourself. Generally most courts have you get there very early - 7 or 7:30 a.m. - to add the case on to the calendar for that day. Good luck!

You can 'run and hide', OR

To properly handle warrants, you must turn yourself into the issuing court, with or without an attorney, and try to negotiate a recall of the warrant[s] and a plea bargain on the new �Failure to Appear� charge. You�ll try to negotiate bail reduction or OR release. You�ll try to negotiate a plea bargain or take to trial the outstanding charges that caused the warrant. Turning yourself in voluntarily will result in a better outcome than being brought in cuffs to court after arrest on the warrant. On felony charges, the defendant must be personally present at every court hearing and appearance. On misdemeanors and infractions, the attorney can appear in court without the defendant being present, and any plea bargain deal could be handled by notarized paperwork. Effective plea-bargaining, using whatever legal defenses, facts and sympathies there may be, could possibly keep you out of jail/prison, or at least dramatically reduce it, and may enable you to get your programs reinstated. 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 in this, and if this is in SoCal courts, feel free to contact me.

The procedure varies from county to county and sometimes even it varies within a county. This is one reason it is good to have an attorney. While you can do it yourself you are best off if you have the assistance of an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney you might talk to a public defender. But the important thing is to get it done as soon as possible so that you do not get arrested. Not only is jail no fun but by turning yourself in you will gain many Brownie points.