A warrant for your arrest can cause you a number of problems. It may prevent you from getting a job, or you could be arrested if you are pulled over. Finding out if you have any active warrants and taking care of them is very beneficial. To find out if you have any outstanding warrants, you can speak with a law enforcement official, a courthouse employee, or a lawyer. Some websites also offer warrant search services.
The fastest and most direct way to find outstanding warrants is to ask a police officer. Law enforcement officials generally will be happy to oblige. Most of the time, they will be able to quickly look up the information you need. As you can imagine, there are some disadvantages to this approach. An officer may arrest you if you have any outstanding warrants.
Most courthouse employees are also able to tell you if you have any outstanding warrants in that particular jurisdiction. Many times you will not be arrested if any warrants show up. Courthouse authorities typically allow you to set up a court date to take care of your offense.
There is a major disadvantage to this method as well. If you mistakenly check a courthouse in the wrong area, you may still be unaware of outstanding warrants in other areas. For example, if you have outstanding warrants for your arrest in Texas, a Pennsylvania courthouse may not necessarily be aware of it.
You can also hire a lawyer to locate outstanding warrants against you. Some lawyers specialize in this type of situation, and they will not only locate the warrants, but also get an active warrant dismissed until a court date can be set. The major disadvantage to this option is cost. Since lawyers can be quite expensive, it may not be worth it when you find out that you have a warrant for an unpaid parking ticket. In this case, paying the fine or arranging to pay the fine would be much less expensive.
Online warrant search websites are another option. This is usually very easy, and you can search by typing in personal information. Some of these sites claim to offer free services, while others provide them at a cost.
One disadvantage to this option is that you may not get the correct information. Also, many of these sites are not actually free, as they claim. After the search is performed, the site may require you to register for a service that costs money before the site will let you see the results of your warrant search.
