Q: I have received a letter from the district attorney from another county that I don’t live in telling me that if I don’t
The letter states that if I don’t pay the court, ordered restitution, or set up payments that there may be a warrant issued for my arrest. My question is if I refuse to pay this restitution, which I feel like I was tricked into signing an agreement to pay this will they come to a different county to arrest me on just failure to pay restitution that was court ordered by a judge or if I avoid going to that county will I never have to worry about being arrested for this
A: If the issuing county will extradtie or not is upto that particular county. Traditionally, it depends on why the warrant was issued. In this instance, it is likely that a show cause hearing would be set before a finding of contempt for failure to pay (a violation of the Court's order). Alabama law does allow district attorneys offices to establish restiution recovery units that will add fees to the ammount owed and will take steps to garnish wages, tax returns and seize bank accounts. Thus, even if the county chooses not to extradtie, it is likely that they will take necessary steps to get the money. Additionaly, even if the county chooses not to extradite, having an active warrant will make every future interaction with law enforcement exponentially worse. Therefore, you need to ensure that the treat is legitimate and the terms of your agreement enforceable and then determine what steps if any should be taken next.
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