Source
r/legaladvice•
TomDankEngine

Small claim warrant across state lines

Small Claims Procedure

My sister (located in ma) sued her father (located in New Hampshire) and won by default. She filed in the city she has residency in and went to court there. Since he did not appear for court she now has a warrant in Massachusetts for his arrest. Massachusetts police cannot cross state lines for the warrant and New Hampshire police is claiming they won’t take an out of state warrant. Obviously this means he has no reason or motivation to pay her and there for will not. Is there a next step in who to contact here?

Edited for clarity. She has a civil warrant for his arrest for contempt of court due failure to appear in court.

Posted Dec 27, 2019, 7:31 PM UTC · edited

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reddituser1211Quality Contributor•

For the most part arrest warrants aren’t issued for failing to pay. They are sometimes issued for failing to appear at a specific civil proceeding where attendance is ordered (most notably a judgment debtor examination). But that would be a pretty surprising process in small claims court. On balance it seems likely that some part of your understanding of these events is a bit off.

If he in fact has a warrant issued in another state he should deal with that problem. It is perhaps likely true that local police aren’t going to come pick him up on an out of state warrant. But they may detain him should he have other contact with law enforcement. Living with an outstanding warrant is never really a good decision.

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TomDankEngineOP•

It’s a civil warrant for arrest for contempt of court due failure to appear in court. But we can’t make any headway from here now. He’ll never do anything to clear it up.

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YoureAdultingMe•

Are you positive he has a warrant? You don't get one for missing civil court dates.

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TomDankEngineOP•

Yes for the none payment following the missing court dates.

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YoureAdultingMe•

That's unconstitutional. There must be some miscommunication here or some missing detail. You should have your sister herself post.

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TomDankEngineOP•

It’s a civil warrant for arrest for contempt of court due failure to appear in court. I was mistaken but am looking at it now. I’ll update the post for clarity but she’s not capable of posting for herself

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mycruelid•

To confirm: she sued a NH resident in the MA small claims court where she lives ?

What sort of tort or debt was this lawsuit over ?

Most small claims courts won't allow you to sue a non-resident, with a few exceptions like out-of-state landlords or out-of-state auto drivers who cause collisions.

She's gone quite a ways if there was a judgment debtor examination that has the sort of weight that can lead to a bench warrant for failure to appear.

But you're correct that NH police won't enforce that type of MA warrant, nor will MA police go to NH to do so.

Her principal option is to pursue any assets he has that are within the reach of a MA court.

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TomDankEngineOP•

It was over repayment of a loan. It’s around 1.4 grand. I don’t believe he has assets in mass that would be an option.

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mycruelid•

I am surprised that she was able to get a default judgment for this lawsuit. A delinquent personal loan is not one of the things for which a "long arm" statute would give a MA court jurisdiction over a NH resident.

Did she attempt to mislead the court in any way, stating that her father lives in Massachusetts ? Did he live in MA during any part of the period of the loan ?

In my opinion she shouldn't have a judgment at all, let alone a bench warrant resulting from a judgment debtor examination.

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TomDankEngineOP•

No it was fully honest in court. I’m obviously not a legal professional so am very surprised to hear the judgment could be an issue. He didn’t live in mass during the loan but has in the past

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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temporaryeyes•

I am a lawyer licensed in both NH and MA. I am not your lawyer, and I am not your sisters lawyer.

What she has is a Capias, or a Civil Arrest Warrant in Massachusetts. It doesn't function in the same way as a criminal warrant, as it permits the individual to use state force to enforce a private judgement. Enforcement of the capias is up to the creditor, and it does involve footing certain fees and paying the police for their time. No officer is going to be looking for him, nor does it generate a per se "criminal" flag on him.

The only purpose to a Capias is to be capable of forcing a debtor into court to have their assets assessed, or to conduct the hearing that was missed. It does not lead to prison time unless there is a lot of other contempt piled on top of it, and even then it is exceedingly rare.

You do however, have a powerful item in the Judgement. What you want to do is have the judgement domesticated in New Hampshire. This will involve filing a new suit to domesticate the Judgement, and have a short hearing for the purposes of having a reciprocal NH judgement issued.

NH has a far more user friendly system, and their filing system is almost entirely online. The clerks office up there is usually very helpful as well. I'd suggest giving them a ring, and they can walk you through the particular forms you will need.

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TomDankEngineOP•

Thank you so much for this reply. Legitimately the only one that was helpful. We had the paper in our hands and were looking at it while everyone said it was impossible.

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