Bench warrant

[amaysngrace]

A bench warrant was issued today because my exH owes me money and failed to show for court. The hearing officer told me that before he can be released he will have to pay back everything he owes me.

 

Does anybody know what this means? Am I going to have to wait for a cop to stop him for speeding or what?

 

It sounds very serious to me, I’m not sure if it’ll be taken as seriously as it sounds though. Does anybody know?

[Arieswoman]

Grace,

I think that your question is beyond the scope of anyone on this board,

 

 

You really need to take legal advice on this.

 

 

Sorry x

[amaysngrace]

What do you mean? I’m not wasting money calling up one of my attorneys when I can maybe get this information for free.

[alphamale]

sorry can't help on this one sis

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

Sounds to me like they're just gonna go pick him up at his house if they can, and he'll be in jail until he pays you back.

[amaysngrace]

Okay, thanks guys. In case I wasn’t clear, the exH owes me a bunch of money for child support. He didn’t show to the court hearing. The hearing officer issued a warrant and stated that for him to be released he’ll have to pay what he owes.

 

Will they send a sheriffs officer out?

 

I figure someone had to have this happen to them or know somebody this happened to, right?

[amaysngrace]

Sounds to me like they're just gonna go pick him up at his house if they can, and he'll be in jail until he pays you back.

 

Thank you! This is what I was thinking but wasn’t sure.

 

I was hoping it was this rather than wait for him to be pulled over by a cop or something.

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

I'm thinking maybe a constable or something like that will come out. Something like this happened to a former neighbor of mine, although they are still married and I can't remember now why the constable was there. Serving papers of some kind since they were fighting.....

[amaysngrace]

I don’t really care who gets him or what happens to him tbh as long as I get my money. My kids are in college. It’s not cheap!

[GorillaTheater]

If the question is whether they'll actively look for him at his home or work, or wait until they accidentally stumble upon him, it kind of depends on the jurisdiction, but my guess is that it's going to be the latter.

[amaysngrace]

Well it’s New Jersey, and they really don’t play when it comes to that.

 

At least I’m hoping.

[Happy Lemming]

If the question is whether they'll actively look for him at his home or work, or wait until they accidentally stumble upon him, it kind of depends on the jurisdiction, but my guess is that it's going to be the latter.

 

I'd have to agree with "GorillaTheater" on this one, especially if there is a large backlog of warrants in your jurisdiction.

 

I did a quick search for backlog of New Jersey warrants and this popped up.

 

"The New Jersey Supreme Court has assigned a panel to review nearly 800,000 municipal-court bench warrants issued before 2003 for minor infractions, including parking and traffic tickets, to determine whether they should be dismissed. Overall, there are about 2.5 million open municipal-court bench warrants in the state."

Source: https://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20190122/wasted-time-on-warrants-backlog-in-massachusetts

[SunnyWeather]

It might come down to wage garnish or a lien on his taxes. Personally, if it were me, I'd find out the legalities of the matter and what my role, if any in the process is, to receive monies owed.

[Mr. Lucky]

I figure someone had to have this happen to them or know somebody this happened to, right?

 

I'm not in New Jersey, but I've certainly had employees run afoul of bench warrants. Without exception, it was in conjunction with some other law enforcement action - traffic stop, eviction, drunk and disorderly or (believe it or not, in one case) jaywalking.

 

I don't think there's many jurisdictions where they're actively pursued on a standalone basis...

 

Mr. Lucky

[amaysngrace]

The county I live in has a FB page and shows the faces and last known addresses of anyone with an active warrant and even gives you a number to call if you’ve seen them in your neighborhood.

 

I hope they get him soon. The way our agreement has always been is I put out the money then get half back from him for doctors or braces or tuition or whatever. He was always really good about paying it back and I really didn’t have too much trouble with him paying support because it was always a wage execution but last I knew support wasn’t enforceable, that’s what CS told me back in the fall.

 

I’m thinking maybe he went to a court ordered rehab and was really hoping to find out the story today but he didn’t show.

 

He didn’t even text the kids merry Christmas or anything or even happy thanksgiving because I remember my daughter making fun of him by saying “I wonder how the stuffing is in prison.”

[preraph]

Yes, it is unlikely they will go after him to serve the warrant, but if they stop him for a ticket or some other thing, the warrant will pop up and they will have to bring him in. I don't know how big your community is. In a big city like Dallas, that is how it would work. However, if you're in a smaller municipality, maybe a plea to law enforcement might prompt them to go ahead and pick him up.

 

A bench warrant means he's already disobeyed the court and it gives the police the right to go break in his house if necessary to serve it. It's stronger than a plain warrant.

 

If I were you, I'd at least try pleading with the police to go serve him (or sheriff or whoever has the warrant).

[CautiouslyOptimistic]

The county I live in has a FB page and shows the faces and last known addresses of anyone with an active warrant and even gives you a number to call if you’ve seen them in your neighborhood.

 

 

He didn’t even text the kids merry Christmas or anything or even happy thanksgiving because I remember my daughter making fun of him by saying “I wonder how the stuffing is in prison.”

 

Ugh, sorry this is what your kids have to deal with .

 

I'm thinking law enforcement isn't super busy at the Jersey shore in February, so you might get lucky!

[amaysngrace]

Thank you and yes, he’s not a nice person. My kids have no time for him and it’s really a shame because they’re terrific but after being hit in the face by him or being called a whore for wearing a bathing suit to a water park he took them to when she was 12 or being told he’d bring him for his driving test to get his license then not show up my kids are over him.

 

Oh, and he blocked my daughter on FB the day my mother died.

[amaysngrace]

Okay so I’m looking it up a child support bench warrant means your license gets suspended. Karma.

 

If you’re caught driving with a suspended license it’s not only a $500 fine but the killer is you get 8 points on your license. I don’t even want to think how much auto insurance will cost at that point. Ours is like some of the highest rates in the country already.

 

omg. This is really bad for him.

[preraph]

Doing some quick googling, I think it's police who do it in Jersey Shore. If you ever know where he is, you could just try letting them know that sometime. Can't hurt to try. I'd do it during the day through the week when police departments have fewer calls.

[amaysngrace]

I’ve looked for him recently and can’t find him around. He was staying at his GFs house in wildwood and had a trailer for his waverunners parked in the driveway there but that’s gone. He also would sometimes stay in this run down condo his GF bought for cheap but his car wasn’t there the other day and neither was that flatbed trailer of his. I’m thinking he may have loaded up his crap and got the hell outta dodge.

 

The courts sent him three letters at last known addresses and none were returned. That’s how they knew he got the notice to appear and she made a point to put that on the record.

 

I don’t really run into him that often. Last time was in summer and I saw him in September on the side of the road one time buying blue claw crabs from a local stand. I only noticed him because of his Harley. I saw the bike first. It looked nice and caught my eye. He didn’t see me though.

 

Sometimes he’d go past my house in the middle of the night, like 2 o clock in the morning, but he hasn’t even done that in a while.

 

If I do see him I’ll definitely call cops now. It’s like the only way I’m gonna get my money. I just don’t feel like he’s around though.

 

My best hope is that his drivers license expires soon.

[Turning point]

The instances of this I've heard about often involved the suspect being spotted by someone he knows that is aware of the warrant and then drops a dime on him. They simply called the local police an said "he's sitting at the bar right now, 3 stools from the left."

[ChatroomHero]

I'd say just call the police department and ask what their process is in a case like this. They will tell you. I have a feeling they will not actively seek him out, so if you spot him and call they may or may not come and it might take them hours.

 

 

Do you think he is collectible? I mean if he gets picked up and doesn't have the money, it really isn't going to help you out in the near future. If he has money and is collectible and you don't want to pay an attorney, I'd do some sleuthing on my own. Have someone he doesn't know try to add him on FB. Call his relatives and tell give them some kind of emergency story that you need to get in contact and because you received a large check from insurance in his name or something.

 

 

If you have a little money and the trade off of catching him is worth it, you could hire a private investigator. Even if he is of the grid they will find out places he worked, when he worked there, bills he paid and when he paid and what address they were sent to. You can do the same things they would do if you weren't afraid to pay in the mud a bit.

[amaysngrace]

Thanks. I know where he last worked. He was hired as some hot shot for Kelley Blue Book at Cox Industries. The only reason I know this is because he gives me insurance cards for the kids and it was their plan. He cancelled their insurance last July though and never sent any new cards.

 

If he was in rehab he may have lost his job. I think he’s on heroin or cocaine or something. I don’t know for sure though. It’s just a guess. But if he is he won’t have much of anything for long because whatever he does he does in a really big way.

 

Ugh, I hate him. He’s the only person I ever knew that I actually hate. Most people have at least some redeeming qualities but he honestly has none. Not one.

 

We got divorced a long time ago, over 13 years ago, so I’m not sure if his family would let him rot in jail. They may come up with the money for him but who knows? They may be as glad to be rid of him as I was and be happy to let him stay there.

 

The only thing that makes me think he’ll hang out around here is his grandparents. They’re up in age and he was always very close to them. But if he’s on drugs I’m not sure any of that’ll matter to him.

[standtall]

A bench warrant in most states is merely a contempt of court or court order issue. It means the police will only arrest him for it if they encounter him for some other reason. They will not go to the house...unless it is some special action where they get a grant to round up deadbeat parents..etc. They will not act on a tip, they will make no effort to find him.

 

Also, say if he has a warrant in county or city X, and he gets encountered out of state or away for county or city x, he may or may not be released anyway since the county or city that issued the bench has to send 1 or 2 officers to travel to go get him. If he is out of state, most likely he may be released. These laws vary from city to city, county to county, state to state, so your results may vary.