Daughter Has a Warrant for Her Arrest

[gmatothree]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Michigan

My daughter (17 at the time, now 18) got caught shoplifting a pair of earrings in February. She received a civil demand for $271. which she is making payments on. The problem is that we had just moved to a temporary place while waiting for her to graduate and then we are relocating to NV because that is where my husband was transferred for work. We already have a home there and she is enrolled in college there. She did tell the officer that and they wrote the paper with the new address. The civil demand letter was mailed to the new address, not forwarded. I did have her name entered into the P.O. to have her mail forwarded to the new address.

Apparently, the request to appear letter was mailed to the old address and not forwarded so we had no idea about this. She just received the warrant for her arrest two days ago, forwarded to the new address. I contacted a criminal defense atty who said they would contact the detective and get back to me with a price to retain him. I didn't hear anything the next day, so I texted him (his preference for communication) and asked. He replied hours later and said the detective wasn't in and he would try the next day. Still nothing. So, I am assuming he is very busy and quite possibly doesn't have time for this case. Fine.

Question: Should my daughter (or I) contact the detective and at least let them know we are aware and not ignoring this? I am very concerned that if my daughter gets stopped for a traffic violation they will arrest her. (Ok, as I type this, I just received a text from the atty telling me he is out of town for the weekend and that he will contact me on Tues.) I'm mad now. He tells me that this is important to get the warrant lifted and then bails. I contacted him on Tuesday! I didn't really want to contact the court myself as I figured the atty knows better how to handle this. Any thoughts?

[flyingron]

You are right, she is living dangerously and any brush with the law may turn up the warrant and get her held. The attorney is best prepared to arrange for her to surrender/appear with the minimum of impact.
Call him on Tuesday and tell daughter to try to stay out of trouble over the weekend.

[gmatothree]

Thank you. I did call the detective and left a message letting them know that I am aware of this and that we are waiting to hear from the atty on Tuesday. I know that won't help if she should get stopped, but I felt that I had to do something as I feel so bad that it has gone on unknown for so long. I did tell my daughter to drive very little. She has to work all weekend so hopefully that helps.

[indybail]

I am curious as to when the the preferred means of communicating with your attorney is via text. It is new to me. Am I missing something?

[PandorasBox]

I sure would not trust that lawyer.

[gmatothree]

Yes, I don't like the texting either. My brother's divorce atty did the same thing and said it was preferred.

So, I texted this atty on Tuesday morning asking if he had heard anything, he texted back (much later) and asked when I could meet with him. Well, I was not happy about that because I had questions, so I sent the questions: "to meet with him or the detective? How soon and what was she facing?". He didn't reply back until this morning and gave the case to his partner. So far I have spoken with the partner 3 times today. He is already better at communicating than the other guy. This one seems to think he can clear my daughter and she won't have to pay anything. BUT, he wants $1200. Said he normally charges $1500. for a case like this but my other daughter had just used them in a DUI case. (I truly did not think I was raising criminals! Geesh)

The reason I went with this firm was that the first atty (although not great at communicating) did do a great job with my other daughter. He knows a lot of people in the county and the city. The judge on that case even told my daughter she was lucky to have such a good atty. If he can get this off her record, I suppose $1200. will be worth it. I just can't help wondering if we really needed an atty at all, if we could have done this ourselves.