Q: What hapoens to a plaintiff is they take a domestic warrant out and they don't show up for court?
A: Typically, nothing. If she has a habit of taking out warrants and not appearing, the court has the option of charging her with abuse of process, or the court may order that a judge or district attorney has to approve any future warrants before they are issued, but that only happens in extreme cases. The court is reluctant to punish domestic violence victims for not following through because (1) domestic violence has a high rate of recidivism, and the court does now want to discourage a victim from filing again if there is a legitimate threat, and (2) some domestic violence victims do not appear because the defendant threatened them and since the victim is not there, the court has no way to know if the victim is not there out of fear, so in an abundance of caution, the court typically dismisses the warrant but does not punish the victim... especially if this is not part of an on-going pattern.
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