Asked 9 months ago - Egg Harbor Township, NJ
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I was issued a driving while suspended ticket, and forgot to show up to court. The Judge entered a Failure to Appear and put a warrant out for my arrest. In order to revoke the warrant and have a court date, the clerk said i needed to post $500.
I'm thinking of hiring an attorney and am wondering if it's possible for an attorney to lower that $500 dollar bail amount. I've heard of "motions to reduce bail" but i thought that was for higher amounts of bail and for people in jail. Kind of just wondering what the process will be if i hire an attorney. Any responsive answers will help!
You should probably consider hiring an attorney to deal with the charge of driving while suspended. In general, there are types of suspensions - punitive and administrative. Depending on what type of suspension you have may impact on the resolution of your case. The bail amount is roughly the amount you would be fined if found guilty or if you enter a plea of guilty to the charges. An attorney could make a request for the court to lift the warrant but it may not be successful. However, on the positive sign, the bail that you post can be used towards whatever fines are imposed.
It is doubtful that the court will reduce the $500 bail but an attorney can definitely convince the court to let that amount go towards any fines for the underlying ticket and the contempt of court charge that you will be facing for not appearing.
If your sumons occurred in Ocean County I cannot help as I am a prosecutor here but if it is any other county my number for a free consult is 732-458-5600.
You need an attorney to represent you in the 'driving on a suspended license' ticket. It is unlikely that you can reduce your bail since you already violated the main requirement for the bail, which is --to show up in court for each hearing. You may be able to use the $500 to offset a portion of the fines you have to pay to the court if you ultimately choose a plea bargain.
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