Legal Question in Traffic Law in Florida

How do I take care of a traffic warrant?

About 3 years ago I made alot of mistakes as far as driving. I had some tickets that went unpaid and failed to appear in court. I was labeled a habitual offender(5 year suspension) and I'm 25 and can't get my DL back until I'm 29. I've accepted this as a mistake and now use public transit. I have a warrant for the failure to appear. My question is if I turn myself in for this and pay all my fines, will I still do jail time? And is their anyway to get my license back sooner or get a hardship license?


Asked on 4/20/08, 2:10 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Brandon Kolb Kolb, Cintron, & Associates

Re: How do I take care of a traffic warrant?

You should discuss the matter with an attorney. Warrants are only issued in criminal offenses, so I'll assume that your failure to appear was on a criminal traffic charge such as Driving While License suspended.

Depending on the circumstances, an attorney may be able to negotiate the lifting of the warrant along with a disposition of your case that does not involve jail time...particularly if you initiate the negotiations.

If you wait until you get picked up on the warrant, you will most likely spend some time in county jail. If you get caught driving on the Habitual suspension, you'll be charged with a felony and face up to 5 years in State Prison.

With the Habitual Offender suspension, you can obtain a business purpose license after you complete one year of no driving and a driver improvement course.

An attorney should be able to address these issues for you at relatively low expense.

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Answered on 4/20/08, 11:48 pm


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