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Henderson County NC Missed Court Date
"I missed my traffic ticket court date in Henderson County. Now there is an Order for my arrest, a Failure to Appear, and my license has been suspended. What do I do?”
The short answer is that you need to hire an experienced Henderson County NC traffic ticket lawyer as soon as possible to handle this important issue for you. Now more than ever, time is of the essence when it comes to missed court dates in Western North Carolina’s Judicial District 29B. Call 828-490-RIDE (7433) NOW to speak with local Hendersonville NC traffic ticket attorney Gordon Langer for free about the specifics of your case. Or use our convenient Contact Form.
Bear in mind that there can be serious consequences for missing your court date. First, if your case was set to be heard in criminal District Court, the presiding judge may have issued an Order for Arrest. If you thought that this was “just a speeding ticket” and that you could not be arrested for missing court, you were wrong. When you are given a court date, you have an obligation to address the issue in some manner on that date.
Second, after approximately twenty (20) days have passed, a $200.00 Failure to Appear fee will be assessed. In years past, judges in Hendersonville would regularly set aside an FTA and waive the associated fee based upon “an error or omission by a judicial official, prosecutor, or law enforcement officer.” Now, however, it is nearly impossible to have a Failure to Appear set aside and to have the fee waived. The lesson here is: Don’t wait to handle your case; deal with it as soon as practicable, or else your predicament will only get worse. Please note that all of the information contained above applies equally to missed court dates in Polk County, NC (Columbus) and Transylvania County, NC (Brevard) because these two counties are also in Judicial District 29B.
Third, the Clerk of Superior Court will send notice to the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles that you missed court. The North Carolina DMV will then send to you an “Official Notice” that your license is scheduled to be suspended. If you fail take care of your traffic ticket within the requisite time period set forth by the Division of Motor Vehicles in its letter to you, your driver’s license will be indefinitely suspended. You will also be responsible for a restoration fee of $65.00 - This is the current fee amount and is subject to change at any time.
“But, the law enforcement officer said that I did not have to go to court.”
Quite frankly, it does not matter what the officer told you. What the officer probably meant to say was that you could pay your speeding ticket or other traffic citation online and thereafter would not have to go to court. While it is true that certain violations can be paid online, many cannot. Even those that can be paid online generally should not be. When you make an online payment, you are pleading guilty to the full charge. That means that all of the penalties associated with that charge will be imposed. Not only would you be paying the full court costs and fines, you may also be subjecting yourself to a driver’s license revocation and to the imposition of insurance points. Paying your ticket online is virtually always a bad move.
“My ticket says: ‘You must appear in District Court on the court date, time, and location shown above.’ Do I have to show up myself, or can I hire an attorney?”
In the vast majority of cases, you do not need to go to court yourself. You can hire an attorney to go to court on your behalf. If you have missed your court date, call Henderson County traffic ticket lawyer Gordon Langer NOW at 828-490-RIDE (7433) for a free consultation regarding your case. Or fill out this quick online Contact Form. Attorney Langer can add your case onto the docket and work to get any Orders for Arrest stricken and to resolve any Failures to Appear. Mr. Langer will also negotiate with the district attorneys to obtain for you the best possible outcome for your underlying charge.
