If your first court apparance was scheduled during the court closure then you need to watch the mail box closely so you will not get a bench warant.
As of March 17, 2020 in Orange County, the courts have closed due to Covid 19 and it affects on the population for public policy reasons. The reasoning is becuse they do not want people to gather and get sick. Jury trials entails gathering large groups of people together which causees transmission of the disease.
As of today April 6th, 2020, the court is still closed with no definitive opening date. The exception is that cases are being set out 60 days so there is a resonable expectation that we will see some movment in that tiem frame.
Court Closure information
This closure includes everything from case that are already going on (pending DUI, pretrials, to non criminal cases. There are only a very limited number of cases being heard at thsi moment in Orange County.
There are a few things you should keep in mind when thinking about your case and court closure. The first you need to keep in mind is that you are not free to leave and your case will not be dismissed. Although it is true that your case will not be heard today, you will still have to come back to court.
The district attorney will/should send you a a notice to appear in court in the near future. This should appear in the mail box with some instructions. For example, on this court date you will have to appear in court on June 4th, 2020 for an arraignment date.
Letter from District Attorney to Appear
The problem with this is that not everyone checks their mailbox. People will miss out on this or mistaken it as jail mail or even be sent out to the wrong address
When this happens you will not know your court date and your case will be called without you being inside the courtroom. The result will be a benchwarrant or a failure to appear on a case.
Bench Warrant for Arrest
I’ve written a lot about bench warrants and what happens when you get one. just know that it is important that you keep an eye out for your case. One of the way you can keep an eye out for your case is by using the courts website. You can check up your case on occourts.org Go to the second tab and go under Case Access.
Acccessing your Online at occourts.org
Reach out to us to Look at your case
You can also to reach out to us and we would be more than happy to look up your case. We can help whether it is a felony or a DUI. It’s important that we make the warrant go away if there is one. We will repreent you on the failure to appear in court, withdrawing the warrant for your arrest and the underlyign case.
