how long does it take for a motion to recall a bench warrant to be recalled and can it be filed by a public defender

Question

Mark Oakley · Answer

It varies.  Technically, the State's Attorney's Office has 15 days (plus 3 more days if the motion is mailed to them) from the date the motion is filed and served to file an opposition to the motion, so the court is supposed to wait the response time--or until the opposition is filed if earlier, before ruling on the motion.  Once the motion is ripre to rule upon, it goes to the judge who issued the warrant, and is likely rules upon that day or the next; however, it depends on how soon the clerk sends the motion up to the judge's desk, and how quickly the judge gets around to reading and ruling on it.  As you can imagine, from clerk to clerk, jursidiction to jurisdiction, and judge to judge, the work load, backlog, laziness or efficiency of all the humans involved in the process, can shorten or extend the time widely, so any kind of prediction in merely a guess.  In some counties, I have had such motions granted within days of filing without the judge even waiting for the prosecutor to file an opposition, and in other counties the motion sits unread either in a pile in the clerk's office or on a busy judge's desk, with me calling weekly to inquire what is going on.  But, within 15-30 days of filing is usually a pretty good timeframe for most counties.  PG County and Baltimore City may take the longest, ad I would not hazard a guess for either.

Q: how long does it take for a motion to recall a bench warrant to be recalled and can it be filed by a public defender