Police DO NOT have quotas. nope.

[Southern Dad]

In Georgia, if you miss court they issue a bench warrant. Now that police have license plate readers on vehicles, these make it easy to effect arrests for bench warrants, suspended licenses, etc. It is a good idea not to miss court. Of course, it's a better idea to obey the law to begin with.

[The Comrade]

if everyone just obeyed the law then there would be zero issues with our criminal justice system.

[NAB]

[Philly]

[Philly]

It also seems pretty basic that if you fail to appear in non-criminal court, the consequence is that you lose. Another experience of my own: when I moved out of an apartment, my landlord would not return the security deposit. He said I failed to clear my belongings out of the apartment and therefore he had to use the security deposit, the equivalent to one month's rent, to have people come in and clear out the unit. Knowing in advance that landlords are scum, I had dated photographs of the entire apartment from the day I moved out. The item in question that I left behind was an old window unit air conditioner that I told the incoming tenant I was going to throw out and she asked me to leave for her. Knowing in advance that landlords are scum, I had a saved e-mail in which I told the land lord that I would be leaving a window unit air conditioner in the bedroom closet at the request of the new tenant, and he said he was fine with it.

So I took him to housing court. Court day comes around, he doesn't show up, they rule in my favor, he has to pay me. I figured he wouldn't show since he had no case and was probably just hoping I'd give up, but it never even crossed my mind that he would get in trouble for not showing. You basically just forfeit if you dont show. At least that's how I've always seen it happen. I guess there are statutes to cover all bases in terms of not showing up for a court date, but when I was there, the judge and all other court employees just seemed happy that they could knock out the ruling immediately and move on to the next case.




Oh, PS about this story: The hearing was scheduled for 11 AM. He called me the day of at 9AM and said he'd like to settle for 75% of the original security deposit, and asked me to come by his office at 2PM. Nice try dickwad.

[NAB]

[Philly]

[NAB]

[Philly]

Either way, I think that even if there are statutes giving the judge the ability to punish you additionally for not showing up, the bottom line is that they have their hearings scheduled for the day and if a few people don't show up, that just means they can take an extra 15 minutes for lunch. Imagine getting your undergrad, then your JD, then becoming a judge all so you can spend your day hearing people tell you how their speeding ticket was bullshit. An extra 15 minutes for lunch is about the best thing you have going for you at that point. I really don't think it irks them too much when someone doesn't show and they can just scratch that one off the list and move on.

[Southern Dad]

The way I've seen it done, the first appearance is a calendar call. You then say if you plan to plead guilty, not guilty, no lo, or want to conference with the prosecutor. If you choose not guilty, they schedule a trial at a future date. However, not showing up any where along the line results in a bench warrant.