Do you need to find warrants in New York? Well, if you believe you have an outstanding warrant out for your arrest for a moving or parking violation, you should STOP driving until you can appear at your local Department of Motor Vehicle. Why? Warrants of arrest do not have an expiration date and eventually will catch up with you. Warrants are only cleared when you appear before a judge in the court that issued the warrant or upon your death.
Once at your local Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV), they will let you know if your license has been suspended and if it was for any outstanding parking tickets and advise you to what locale requested the suspension. This is where you will need to appear to take care of the warrant.
If your parking tickets are from New York, you may try to request a hearing by mail or online.
WARNING! If you do not check with DMV and are caught driving while suspended, you will be in more serious trouble as once you are caught driving while suspended, your vehicle could be towed and you will have to pay for towing and storage fees until you can take your vehicle out. Note: Vehicles can not be picked up on New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
If caught driving while suspended, you will be arrested as well so you will first have to come up with bail (if allowed) for yourself before you can get the vehicle out of the impound lots and will have to satisfy the payments on the tickets.
If your privilege to drive is not revoked, you will then need to check with the local police station to see if a bench warrant is out for you and this can be done at no charge with an exception. If you are outside of State of New York, you may contact the Warrant Section’s Telephone Inquiry Unit at (718) 217-8484 where you will be asked a series of questions so that an investigator can attempt to search the records.
If a local police station does not find any warrants, the search will be free to you but if a warrant is found, you may have to pay a fine or bail for the warrant on the spot.
* Alias Warrants – Failure to appear on citation
* Bench Warrants – Failure to appear for court
* Capias Warrants – Failure to pay a court fine
Since you may not have sufficient money (or the privilege to drive) for outstanding warrants, you should visit the Police Station with a friend or relative so that if you are placed under arrest, that person can be made aware immediately and return with payments to cover the full warrants so you will not have to stay overnight.
Join us in our New York Forum if you have any comments or questions.
Steve Pringle
Latest posts by Steve Pringle (see all)
- Plaza Abbreviations in New York - Tuesday, December 7, 2010
- Posters in New York City - Monday, December 6, 2010
- Ball Drop Views in New York City - Sunday, December 5, 2010