When a defendant pleads guilty or nolo contendere in JP court and appeals to the County Court at Law, but then fails to show up for court, the CCL has always remanded it back to the JP court for collection. I now have a JP judge asking me about this practice and I cannot find any statutory authority for the court to do so. Can someone point me in the right direction and/or tell me what your court does in these situations?
We start a forfeiture proceeding on the bond in CCL, have the CCL issue a capias, and file the additional charge of bail jumping, even though it's only a Class C.
Posts: 20 | Location: Paris | Registered: May 10, 2012
If the appeal has been perfected and the defendant fails to appear, procedendo is probably not the appropriate remedy. Procedendo would be appropriate if the appeal were not timely filed or if there's a defect in the bond, since in those cases, the CCL would not have been vested with jurisdiction over the case.
Thanks for that. Learned something new today. I hereby withdraw my earlier post of ignorance and will go back to what I know... red jack on black queen.