To avoid this entire predicament, you can turn yourself in to the Criminal Justice Center at 1301 Filbert Street at 7:30 – 8:00 a.m. any weekday after about 7 calendar days have passed after the bench warrant was issued. Once you turn yourself in you will get a subpoena for 12:30 p.m. for the same day to actually get the warrant lifted and to get a new court date. By turning yourself in, the court system looks at you in a much more favorable way, like amnesty, because you voluntarily walked in to fix the problem as opposed to you getting re-arrested by the police.

Clients often ask if there is a chance that they will get locked up when they go and get the warrant lifted. People get locked up very rarely when they go to turn themselves in, however it does happen. Some example are when the warrant is very old. In this case, the system may just increase the bail. In this scenario I advise people to bring some cash with them to court, or to have a friend or family member go with them to court and be prepared to pay a new bail in the case.

The other scenario is when the type of bench warrant that was placed on them was called a judge only bench warrant. A judge only bench warrant means that the judge who issued the bench warrant is the only person who can lift the bench warrant. A judge only bench warrant is usually only issued when a person fails to appear for their felony trial date. If you get a judge only bench warrant, you usually will get locked up when you go to turn yourself in.

Often times if a person has a potentially bad situation with a bench warrant or a judge only bench warrant, appearing with an attorney can greatly lessen the blow of getting the warrant lifted.

At the conclusion of the case, bail is refunded to the defendant (or whoever posts the bail, if the person who posts bail puts themselves as the guarantor). However, the City of Philadelphia keeps thirty percent of the bail money, up to a maximum of $750.00. The remainder of the bail posted is refundable, no matter if the defendant is found guilty or not-guilty.

Philadelphia accepts credit cards to post bail. However, the full amount of the bail must be posted – not just the ten percent. Real estate is also accepted as bail security, but again, the equity in the real estate must be valued at the full amount of bail – not just the ten percent.

If a defendant posts bail and then fails to appear in court or fails to abide by the conditions of bail, then all the money deposited is forfeited.

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