Hi, I'm Charlie Roadman, Austin Criminal Defense Attorney. And today, I want to talk about the walk-through, how it works and what it is. So first, what is a walk-through? It's a way to resolve a warrant. So if you find a warrant out for you, the number one plan is to try to do a walk-through, which could last anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours. So it is much faster than turning yourself in and just waiting for the court system to process you and do the administrative work and everything like that. So a walk-through is having an attorney, or sometimes a bail bondsman, ready to turn in the bond at the same time you turn in yourself. So it happens simultaneously. So it's the fastest way to resolve a warrant and get out of jail.

Now, it can be a personal bond or a surety bond. So attorneys mostly work in personal bond. So we would go talk to the judge in advance, talk to the court staff, the pretrial services, and we get this bond all worked up and signed. And so we have that personal bond with us when we go with you to the jail, when you turn yourself in, and we turn in the bond. A surety bond is typical of a bail bondsman, and they do something comparable, but it's a surety on their bail bond company. Now, an attorney is better able to resolve any problems that come up. So a bail bondsman, if there's problems, they don't have a lot of tools that they can use. All they can really do is post the bond. An attorney can go negotiate with a judge and negotiate with pre-trial services, try to figure out ways to fix the problem and/or get bond conditions removed or adjusted.

For example, sometimes they might have an ankle monitor or something thing like that. And an attorney at least is allowed to discuss and negotiate with the prosecutors, trying to get those things adjusted or removed. It doesn't always work, but an attorney is someone that can do that. Now, common questions. How long does a walk-through take? It can be quick. And by that, quick as 30, 45 minutes. But it can also take hours depending on how busy the Sheriff's deputies are. When you turn yourself in, they have a whole bunch of paperwork that they do, and they do it very meticulously, which means slowly. And they do it at their own speed. And there's nothing an attorney can do to make them work faster.

In fact, I say the more pressure I put on them, the slower they work. That's just their culture. But what should you bring if you're doing a walk-through? Definitely a driver's license. That's the most common thing. And don't bring anything else. Certainly don't bring anything illegal, but just a driver's license is the main thing you need to do a walk-through, or passport or other ID. Now, should you make small talk and joke with the deputies while you're doing the walk-through? Nope. Just say, "Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am." Answer their questions and just leave them alone. They generally don't like being talked with because they're very carefully doing the paperwork.

And then what if there's another warrant for you or something from another county? Well, that would be bad. Because attorneys, we can look for warrants in places where you give us hints. If you say, "I may have a warrant here," we can go look. But there's no central area where we can look for warrants all over Texas or all over the United States. So if you're concerned that there may be another problem in another county, explain that to us or your attorney, so that we can try to figure out if that's going to be a problem. We don't want to discover that warrant when you're doing the walk-through on this case. All right. I hope that helps. Call us if you have any questions. Best of luck.