Warrants are important legal documents that allow law enforcement to take action against someone. For this reason, if someone has a warrant out for their arrest, it usually means that they’re about to be taken into custody. What’s more, warrants can become public records if someone is convicted, and they may even be considered public records while they’re open.
For these reasons, you may be curious about whether or not they expire and if law enforcement has a specific timeline they need to follow. Thankfully, we have your back with this guide. So, do warrants expire? Read on to have your questions answered.
What Is a Warrant?
A warrant is an official order that comes from a judge or a magistrate. Typically, warrants are provided to law enforcement to enable them to take action against someone. For example, a judge may provide police officers with a search warrant if they have probable cause to search someone’s property.
Another common type of warrant is an arrest warrant, which is issued when a judge finds that there is probable cause to arrest someone. If you end up looking at a warrant, you won’t find a ton of information, but you will find someone’s name, what they’re being accused of, and the signature of the judge or magistrate who’s signing off on the warrant.
Do Warrants Expire?
Typically, warrants don’t expire. You’ll find that arrest warrants and bench warrants rarely expire unless a judge orders the warrant to expire. If this doesn’t happen, then the warrant is left open until the person is arrested or brought into court.
That said, there are some warrants that expire. For example, search warrants usually expire after a given period, and some federal warrants may expire after 10 days if they’re not used. For these reasons, it ultimately depends on the type of warrant.
It’s also important to note that court orders can also cause a warrant to expire. So, while warrants can expire, how they can expire tends to be complicated.
How to Find Out if a Warrant Has Expired
If you want to learn how to find out if a warrant has expired, the good news is that the process is a breeze. However, you need to have the right tools. We take you through the best tools for the job below.
UnMask
One way to find out if a warrant has expired is to use a reliable criminal records search tool, like UnMask. This is a tool that will help you find all available public records associated with someone, including active warrants, expired warrants, and additional criminal records.
To determine if a warrant has expired with a tool like UnMask, you can start by entering their first and last name into the criminal records search. From there, you can comb through all available public records to determine if a warrant has expired.
The best part about this tool is that you don’t have to track down the specific law enforcement agency or organization that made an arrest or issued a warrant. Instead, you can run a simple search that covers everything in one place.
Check With Local Law Enforcement
For local police warrants, it doesn’t hurt to check with local law enforcement agencies. You can contact police agencies to determine if a warrant has expired. That said, you’ll need to provide them with information about the person who has a warrant out, so you’ll need to know their name.
Some law enforcement agencies also have online databases that you can check to determine if a warrant has expired.
Check With Local Courts
Another way to determine if a warrant has expired is to simply check with local courts. You’ll find that courts tend to keep records of warrants, so if one has expired, you shouldn’t have any issues checking with the courthouse.
Still, you’ll need to know where the case was held or which court issued the warrant, so some additional digging may be necessary. Thankfully, tools like UnMask can point you in the right direction.
Do Warrants Expire? Our Final Thoughts
So, do warrants expire? In short, yes, some warrants expire. However, this only applies to some warrants. While arrest warrants and bench warrants tend to remain open indefinitely (or until they’re resolved), search warrants and some federal warrants will expire.
At the end of the day, if you’re unsure about whether or not a warrant has or can expire, we always recommend leveraging a tool like UnMask to help you.