Legal Question in DUI Law in California

Warrants do not generally disappear. My guess is that you are mistaken, and the warrant still exists.

Warrants are forever, and don't magically disappear. Check again. To handle a warrant, you must turn yourself into the court, 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, 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. That can happen if you come in contact with law enforcement or customs anywhere in the US. 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. While this isn't a 'capital case', you face potential jail and fines, so handle it right. 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.

If you really have had a warrant for a dui case , where you were arrested and then released, with a future court date, and you failed to appear, then that warrant should remain in the system until it is addressed. I have heard, over my 25 years in the criminal justice system, where warrants do not show up, sometimes for long periods of times, and then, without any way to explain it, re-appears some time later. But you should know that if a warrant truely exists, it doesn't go away really. It may simply not show up on a computer printout when run by law enforcement, only to appear the next time your record is run. You should contact an attorney in or near your area for their advise. If you want to address the warrant, in some jurisdictions, your warrant may be able to be addressed without the need for your personal appearance. Take care of it and speak to an attorney, BEFORE you are driving one day, and pulled over by law enforcement, and are unfortunate enough to have the warrant appear on their computer. I wish you the best... David Wallin