A loved one was just arrested and charged with a crime. What happens next?

If a loved one has been arrested and charged with a crime then one of two things has happened; either they’ve been arrested and a warrant has not been yet written and issued. If that’s the case then you want that process to occur as quickly as possible. If the warrant had been issued prior to the arrest then the warrant has been served.

Your loved one cannot have a bond hearing and be released from custody until such time as the warrant is served. If the charge involves an alleged victim, in other words, if there was a theft or an assault allegation or something of that nature, then the court is required to notify the person who was the alleged victim so they have an opportunity to be heard at the bond hearing.

So it’s very important to try to get those pieces together so that a bond hearing occurs more quickly. Bond hearings are set twice a day in most jurisdictions here they’re set in the morning at 9:00 and generally in the afternoon at 4:00. So the idea is you want to get to the next available bond hearing. It’s a good idea to contact a lawyer. If you call our office and we can act fairly quickly, and usually we can speed up that process. You want to avoid the person spending the night in jail in most instances and so there’s certainly steps you can take to try to speed that up even after the person has been arrested and taken into custody.