The Seattle City Attorney's Office has asked a judge to effectively erase 200+ outdated and outstanding arrest warrants. The Attorney's Office is hoping to quash warrants created for nonviolent and non-felony offenses between the years of 1996 and 2013. As Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes explained, if someone did not commit a serious crime and did not reoffend within the last half-decade, he and his colleagues are “not interested” in pursuing that case.

The underlying goal of the motion is freeing up law enforcement officers and prosecutors to work on higher priority cases. More than half of the warrants that may be dismissed depending on the judge's discretion are related to prostitution charges. Another 35% of the warrants are related to driving with a suspended license charge. Only a few relate to drug offenses and other miscellaneous nonviolent, non-felony crimes, like vandalism.

It is important to note that many of the outstanding arrest warrants target people who were convicted of a crime but did not attend court for follow-up hearings. The legal motion filed by the Seattle City Attorney's Office is the first time a Seattle judge will have to consider wiping out warrants created post-conviction.

(For more information about this ongoing story, you can click here to read a full article from SeattlePI.)

How You Can Clear Up Your Warrant & Your Name

Do you believe you have an outstanding warrant in Seattle? Visit the Seattle Municipal Court portal at https://web6.seattle.gov/courts/ECFPortal/Default.aspx to search for your name. If you do have a warrant under your name that you would like to resolve, the Delridge Community Center is hosting an event that will allow you to resolve your warrant and set court dates without facing any risk of being arrested.

Important information about the warrant resolution event:

• Date: Friday, November 30^th, 2018
• Time: 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
• Where: Delridge Community Center
• Address: 4501 Delridge Way SW, Seattle, WA 98106
• Contact: 206-684-7423

If you have been charged with a crime that is ineligible for simple resolution or warrant dismissal, you will want a criminal defense attorney on your side for the road ahead. Come to Stein, Lotzkar & Starr, P.S. for hard-hitting, tenacious representation in Bellevue, Seattle, and beyond. Call (425) 559-9449 to arrange a free consultation with a legal team backed by more than a decade of legal experience.