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The term search warrant is used a lot in general conversation, but what exactly does the term search warrant mean? Usually the term “warrant” refers to the paper that allows a law enforcement person to arrest or detain a person because he or she has committed a crime. However, it is hard to reconcile this definition of warrant with the term “search”. Most people may think that a search warrant refers to searching for a person that has committed a crime but this is not the case.

Any criminal record can seriously affect your life and your sources of income. But a felony conviction can ruin your whole life. The type of crime can affect where you are allowed to live, your housing situation, whether you can get a student loan to continue your education, and even where you work. A federal or state felony conviction can drastically change your life – and not for the better.

In the area of criminal law, the US Constitution reigns supreme, as all levels of the legislature cannot pass laws that violate the Constitution. The Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms. From the point of view of US criminal law, the most important of these is the presumption of innocence of the accused. The defendant does not have to prove his innocence. The judiciary is obliged to prove his guilt.

The first fact that should be noted about traffic warrants is that in most states there is no statute of limitations for traffic violations. This statement in essence means that a traffic violation that was committed in 1980 when a person was in college in a different state is still valid and can be acted upon if he or she is stopped in the state where the violation occurred even today more than thirty years later.

In some states a person can obtain a state identification card if he or she has an open warrant, however, the new information thatis given isusually input into the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) data base which in turn makes it easier for the person to be located and arrested.

Extradition laws have been around a long time in the United States. A careful look at the United States Constitution will reveal that there is a clause within the Constitution that is referred to as the Extradition Clause.

No one likes to hear that the police are looking for them or that there is an outstanding arrest warrant with their name on it. If you should get ANY inkling that there is an outstanding warrant for your arrest the first thing that you want to do is to make sure that the information that you received is true. Even though you may not have a common name there are so many people with similar names so contact the courthouse to verify that you indeed are the one that the police are looking for to arrest.

Bench warrants are sometimes confused with arrest warrants but they are two distinctly different entities. Although both are issued by judges or magistrates that is pretty much where the similarity stops. Arrest warrants are issued because a person committed a crime or some type of civil wrong that could be punishable by arrest. For example: deadbeats are often arrested and thrown in to jail for failure to pay child support.

More than likely if there is a warrant issued for you in another state it is because you lived there, worked there or have had some type of substantial contact with the state or some of the state’s residents. Keeping that thought in mind it makes it easier to find out of state warrants. There are online services that will allow you to search for warrants and even though the searches are reasonably priced most people have no desire to search all fifty states on a regular basis to find our if there is a warrant issued for them. However, when you narrow down the list of states to be searched then it becomes easier, less expensive and less time consuming to complete your search.

One of the first things that must be considered if a person is trying to expunge his or her arrest records is the age of the victim in the case. If the victim was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime upon which the arrest record is based then it will be virtually impossible to expunge that type of arrest record.