Legal Question in DUI Law in Washington

Re: Failure to Appear

I presume that your DUI/DWI was in Washington State. You will need to contact a lawyer near the city or town where this matter was supposed to be heard. Investigation needs to be done as to the exact status of the case presently. Based upon that, then you will be able to decide what you wish to doabout it. Is your license to drive in Lousiana currently affected by this old DUI? What exactly is the nature of the "haunting" that this old matter is doing?

Re: Failure to Appear

Contact a lawyer in the state where the offense happened.

Re: Failure to Appear

Dear Law Guru Friend,

Don't know what the other lawyers have advised you; but they are all good lawyers, so consider what they say, as well as what I say.

It's not worth going back to Washington over, if you can avoid it. You can do any of the following options:

(1) Ignore it, hope it never comes up again. Not such a good idea, as I see it. Don't want to get stopped for a ticket one day and find out there is a warrant for you for DWI out of Washington.

(2) Handle it by phone and mail. Call Washington and see how much money they want to take care of it. Probably all they want is the money. Only problem, as I see it, this will be a "conviction" for DWI, and that is not good. However, it is not the end of the world.

(3) Contact Washington, see if the D.A. or prosecutor there will reduce it to a lesser charge such as reckless operation and send them the money. This is not as bad as sending them the money for DWI. Also, it will be cheaper.

(4) Write and/or call the D.A. in Washington and see if he or she will not just drop the charge and close the file, and recall a warrant, if there is one outstanding; which there probably is.

There is probably something I am not thinking of here, so be sure to consider what the other lawyers have advised you, especially Mr. Casanave, since he used to be an Assistant D.A. here in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana.

Best of luck!

Sincerely,

Hardy Parkerson, Atty.

Lake Charles, LA

Re: Failure to Appear

It�s almost 100% certain that the court issued an arrest warrant for your failure to appear (FTA) in October 1994. This type of warrant is called a �bench warrant.� If you want to clear this up, you�ll have to go through the process of �quashing� the warrant.

Washington State bench warrants for FTAs on misdemeanor offenses are usually non-extraditable, so this means that turning yourself in locally to the police in Louisiana won�t work. Rather, you�ll need to travel back here to Washington State, appear in the court that issued the warrant, and explain what happened in 1994.

Probably the easiest way to start the process will be to contact a lawyer in the same town as the court. The person you retain can contact the court and verify the status of the warrant. I have heard of these matters slipping through the cracks, that is the warrant didn�t get properly approved and then was never redone, or the prosecutor dropped the ball, or whatever. If that happened, your lawyer might be able to get the matter dropped for want of prosecution, or maybe not.

If the warrant is still active, the lawyer can then find out what the court�s preferred procedure is for quashing old warrants. He or she can also find out what sentence you may face on the original DUI and do his or her best to avoid having you charged with the criminal offense of FTA.