Bail Jumping

Bail Jumping; Default in Required Appearance (N.J.S.A. 2C:29-7) is charged when a person knowingly skips a court date that has been ordered as a condition of their release from jail.

This applies whether or not bail was actually set at the time of your release.

The primary element of the charge is that you knew you had a court appearance scheduled for a given day and time and failed to appear for it.

The charge is graded according to the underlying charge you are facing. 2C:29-7 is a crime of the third degree if you are being tried for a crime of the third, second, or first degree, and will add an additional three to five years to a sentence if convicted on all counts.

Otherwise, the charge is graded in accordance with the underlying charge, so a crime of the fourth degree will carry the danger of an additional 18 months in prison, a disorderly persons offense will carry the danger of an additional six months in prison, and a petty disorderly persons offense will carry the risk of an additional 30 days in jail.

Any ancillary charge that can double your exposure to prison time is a big deal, but many New Jersey residents are caught off guard when a summons is mailed to the wrong address or is lost in transit.

Do not take chances with charges this serious, as prosecutors will jump at the opportunity to tack on more charges to an indictment.

Call Matthew Reisig today at 732-625-9661 for a free consultation with an experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney.

As in every state, it is a crime in New Jersey to skip out on an ordered court appearance when a criminal summons has been issued.

Known as Bail Jumping or Default in Required Appearance (N.J.S.A. 2C:29-7), knowingly failing to appear for a scheduled court date can carry serious criminal sanction by itself, the underlying charge notwithstanding.

The core element in proving a Bail Jumping charge – which can apply even if there was no actual bail applied at the time you were released – is that you knowingly failed to appear after a summons was issued.

Many people in New Jersey move frequently or don’t have a consistent place of residence. A summons may be sent to an old address, or sometimes not sent at all.

There are defenses for Bail Jumping charges, and an experienced defense lawyer can help you take full advantage of them, and head off an additional criminal charge.

Don’t be steamrolled by the system when you’ve been charged with a minor crime and didn’t receive a summons for your court date.

Matthew Reisig has defended people in New Jersey from all sorts of charges for nearly 20 years.

Call 732-625-9661 today and talk to an experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney for free.

Yes, the Bail Jumping statute (N.J.S.A. 2C:29-7) is centered around the idea that the state has released you from custody with clear guidance of when you are to return for scheduled hearings.

But sometimes the situation changes, hearings are postponed, and your connection to the case can become tenuous.

The statute states, “It is an affirmative defense for the defendant to prove, by a preponderance of evidence, that he did not knowingly fail to appear,” which means that if you can demonstrate convincingly that you did not know about a court date, that you cannot be convicted of Bail Jumping.

Because Bail Jumping is often charged as an indictable (felony) offense, it’s very important that you take the charge seriously and retain counsel who can help protect you from overzealous prosecutors.

Matthew Reisig represents clients all over New Jersey facing charges of all kinds.

If proven, Bail Jumping can damage not only the criminal case you were facing to begin with, but leave you with a criminal record for life.

Call 732-625-9661 today and speak to an experienced New Jersey Bail Jumping attorney for free.