A Main Difference Is How They’re Issued
Video Transcribed: Okay, let’s do a real quick one. Is a bench warrant different from your standard arrest warrant? Hi, I’m Ty Smith, an Oklahoma City area attorney with Wirth Law. I’m only bringing this one up because I recently had a potential client come and call and add a question and he asks that exact question. And this one should be relatively quick.
The short answer for laypeople is no. The long answer is no, no. For all intents and purposes, if you have a bench warrant or if you have an arrest warrant out, that’s going to do the same thing to you. It’s going to land you in jail or it can potentially, which is why you need to hire an attorney, but we’ll get to that one later.
The big difference between the two is how they’re issued. A bench warrant comes out typically from a missed court date. Those are issued straight from a judge because you have failed to appear for something the court wanted you to appear for. An arrest warrant goes through a whole process that I’ve talked about in a previous video if you want to go back and watch one of those that I’m not going to go over today, but for all of the important stuff for you, they’re the same thing. If you have a bench warrant, treat it like it’s a standard arrest warrant, like what you see on Law & Order because you need to get that taken care of. It can snowball into something much worse.
If you have a bench warrant or even a standard arrest warrant, it’s imperative that you speak to a criminal defense lawyer in Oklahoma immediately and I’d love to be that attorney for you. I am Ty Smith, once more. I’m with Wirth Law and I’m at theoklahomacityattorney.com. If you would like to, I would love to speak to you about any matters really regarding criminal law or family law. I’m at 405-888-5400.
