How much time will I serve?

[eltro]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Ok so I have had a four warrants for my arrest totaling $500. If I go turn myself in, how long am I expected to stay in jail? I don't want to pay it because either way I'm guilty because I didn't show up to court (It wasn't my fault, I never got the letter in the mail ). Until now I want to get a city job and until I pay the warrants I can't. So for those of you in the law enforcement area or with experience, what is the typical stay in jail for those tickets or does the judge decide how much time served i will get? By the way two tickets are from the pest control because my dogs were not tied and the others are for no registration and insurance. Thanks!

If it's not worth it, should I just pay a lawyer to try and take them off? Is it worth the chances or the lawyer being able to take them off? Thanks again.

[CavemanLawyer]

Jail credit (ex: good time credit, how many days equal $100, etc..) is set by the sheriff and could possibly vary from one county to the next. I'm in Harris (Houston) and surrounding counties and you serve off $100 for each day served in jail but don't forget that you've got to sit out court costs too which are about $100 per ticket including the FTA's. If you turn yourself in do it as late in the day as possible. You'll get credit for that entire day and the next day will start at midnight.

You could possibly hire an attorney or just get a friend to go pay off your tickets. The might just accept the money and lift the warrants but it is entirely up to how that JP/Municipal Court handles things. They may require you to pay in person, and they may even then still take you into custody. If they allow you to come in pay, and leave, than you might consider paying tickets and then posting an appeal bond, which is the total amount of the tickets. In other words if all your tickets added up to $500 than you'd need to pay $1000 but of course you get the bond amount back once the cases are disposed of. Appeals at the JP/Muni level are trial de novo meaning that your cases will be re-filed at a county court and you will get to handle them completely anew. You can then try to get the tickets worked out with a prosecutor but the problem is that court costs are very high when you do this.

To be honest the answer depends on how much you value your time. It depends whether you are willing to pay ~$500-$1000 to avoid roughly a week in jail.

[eltro]

Well I live in the El Paso county area. Is there a way to find out how much the jail cost is? I want to turn myself in tomorrow after 4pm because i have friday and saturday off work but i don't want to say longer than that. well i do value my time but i don't have that kind of money right now but if i don't decide to do it i will try to make payments to get it over with.

[CavemanLawyer]

You may be able to call the warrant division of your local police department or the sheriffs department. The purpose of the division is to bring people in with warrants so you are doing them, and yourself, a favor by coming in so they might not be opposed to giving you information like how long you'd have to serve.

You can also go to the JP/Municipal court and pay off some of the tickets and then let them take you into custody there. You could pay off enough so that you just sit out the weekend.