Failure to appear

In law, failure to appear consists of a defendant or respondent refusing to appear at (or within) the stated time before a tribunal as directed in a summons. Where the conduct alleged in the summons or complaint is an infraction or summary offence, failure to appear is a process crime of common law for which a bench-warrant can be issued if the defendant promised to appear for release or if it happens to be the sentencing. If the conduct alleged is a tort or other cause for civil action, failure to appear generally results in a default judgment by the court in favor of the plaintiff/petitioner.

In the United States

Failure to appear in U.S. federal law is an offense, depending on the seriousness of the offense the person is being sentenced for:[1][2]

Offense of preconviction Punitive measure Offense level
Offense punishable by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment up to at least 15 years prison up to 10 years or fine or both 14
Offense punishable by imprisonment up to at least 5 years prison up to 5 years or fine or both 11
Any other felony prison up to 2 years or fine or both 8
Misdemeanor prison up to 1 year or fine or both 5

A witness allowed for release is, in the result, treated the same as though for a misdemeanor.

All states except for Maryland, Mississippi and Wyoming have similar state laws. The territories of the United States lack the crime. In Minnesota, the punishment for failure to appear can even exceed the punishment foreseen by the law for the underlying offense.[3] In most jurisdictions a crime based on another's legal importance, different from qualifications, as for example threatening with bodily violence, never exceeds the punishment of the basic crime, which in the example was bodily violence.

Civil law

In civil law, there is regularly no crime of failure to appear at the criminal court. However, an arrest warrant may be issued and resisting it may fulfill obstruction of a police officer in the exercise of his duties.

Criticism

The criminal status of so-called bail jumping has been critized as unreasonable due to daily-life and not unusual impedications to attending trial like childcare and transport problems. Punishability for missing the trial because of hospitalization has been seen as injustice. Less supportably than for other crimes, it keeps criminals shut in the punitive system and, more particularly, its institutions. In case of determining bail, it exacerbates the placement on bail significantly.[4]

References
  1. 18 U.S.C. § 3146(b)
  2. USSG §2J1.6
  3. Pretrial Release Violations & Ball Forfeiture (2018), National Conference of State Legislatures
  4. Corey, Ethan; Lo, Puck, The "Failure to Appear" Fallacy, January 9, 2019, The Appeal
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