It may be possible to check for warrants in Las Vegas and Clark County online or by phone.
To check for warrants by phone, I recommend you ask me to check on your behalf. If you have an active warrant, you do not want to risk calling to see if you have a warrant and then having your location tracked by law enforcement (though this rarely happens).
We can also discuss options for getting your warrant recalled. In many cases, I can do this without you having to appear in court at all.
Warrant Check in Las Vegas
To check online for warrants issued by Las Vegas Municipal Court, go to the City of Las Vegas Marshal Warrant Search and enter your name and social security number. Or else call (702) 229-2067.
To check online for warrants issued by Las Vegas Justice Court, go to the Las Vegas Township Justice Court Records Inquiry and follow the prompts. Cases with active warrants will appear with a red and white “W” to the left of the case number. Or else (702) 671-3201.
Warrant Checks Elsewhere in Clark County
- call (702) 293-9278
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 455-8000
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 346-5711
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 298-4622
- go to Henderson Municipal Court Active Warrants website, or
- call (702) 267-3370
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 455-7951
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 298-4622
- call (702) 346-5291
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 346-5298
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 864-2333
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 397-2840
North Las Vegas Municipal Court
- go to North Las Vegas Municipal Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”) or
- call (702) 633-1130
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 455-7801
- go to Clark County Case search and follow prompts (under case status, highlight “warrant”), or
- call (702) 297-1252
Quashing a Warrant in Las Vegas
If you have an active warrant, you can be apprehended by Nevada police at any time.
In my experience, police will go out and search for you only if you are facing felony charges, not misdemeanor charges. Though if you are pulled over for a traffic infraction, the police will not hesitate to arrest you once they run your name and see you have a warrant for a felony or a misdemeanor.
Arrest Warrants
An arrest warrant is issued at the very beginning of a case when the D.A. decides to charge you with a crime.
If you have an arrest warrant, I would contact the prosecutor and try to orchestrate a surrender and “walk through.” This is where you get booked and released quickly on bail. Then you will be out of custody as the prosecution and I try to resolve your criminal charges.
Bench Warrants
At any point during your criminal case, judges will issue a bench warrant if you ever miss a hearing or otherwise defy judicial orders. In many cases, defendants miss court due to circumstances beyond their control, such as hospitalization or car trouble.
If you have a bench warrant, I would file a “motion to quash” with the court. The court will then hold a hearing a few days later, where I will try to persuade the judge to lift the warrant.
If the judge complies (which they usually do), the underlying criminal case will continue as it did before. In most cases, I can appear at this motion quash hearing without you having to show up.
Failure To Appear Charges
When you are released on bail or on your own recognizance, you are given a court date on which to appear. If you then miss court and the judge issues a bench warrant – and then if 30 days pass without the warrant getting quashed – prosecutors can charge you with an additional crime: Failure to Appear (“FTA”) under NRS 199.335.
For you to be convicted of FTA in Nevada, prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following elements of the crime.
- You were released on bail or on your own recognizance;
- You were out of custody (not in jail);
- You missed your next court date; and
- You did not surrender yourself within 30 days after the date you were required to appear in court.
In practice, prosecutors rarely bring FTA charges. Though when they do, the penalties are severe, as this chart shows.
| Underlying Criminal Charge | Nevada Penalties for FTA |
| At least one misdemeanor (and no felonies or gross misdemeanors) | Misdemeanor: Up to 6 months in jail and/or up to $1,000 in fines* |
| At least one gross misdemeanor (and no felonies) | Gross Misdemeanor: Up to 364 days of jail time and/or up to $2,000 in fines* |
| At least one felony | Category D felony: 1 to 4 years in Nevada State Prison and up to $5,000 in fines (at the court’s discretion) |
| * If you left Nevada with the intent to avoid prosecution, then FTA is instead charged as a category D felony carrying 1 to 4 years in prison and a possible maximum fine of $5,000. | |
Are warrants public records in Nevada?
Yes. Once an arrest warrant or bench warrant is issued in Nevada, it is a public record.
You can search for it on the relevant court website or by calling the court. Plus third-party background check sites may include warrant information in their criminal history searches.
Even if the warrant gets recalled or quashed, there may be a lag time before the third party companies update their database. In some cases, they never do. So I recommend you run a background check on yourself to make sure no out-of-date warrants come up.
Are there warrants for traffic tickets?
Most traffic violations in Nevada are prosecuted as civil infractions, which are not crimes and carry no jail time. Therefore, if you are late to pay a traffic ticket, the judge cannot issue a bench warrant for your arrest.
However, there are other penalties for being delinquent on paying your traffic ticket: The Nevada DMV will suspend your license 31 days after it mails you a notice of suspension.1 Plus, you are assessed a collection fee of:
- Up to $100, if you owe less than $2,000.
- Up to $500, if you owe more than $2,000 but less than $5,000.
- 10% of the amount of the delinquency, if the amount is $5,000 or greater.2
Additional Resources
For more information, refer to the following:
- National Crime Information Center – The FBI’s centralized database for accessing criminal justice information, including warrants.
- SearchQuarry.com – Public record provider with warrant searches by name, city or county.
- Vinelink.com – Free site to search for outstanding warrants and criminal records in participating states.
- PeopleFinders.com – Public records site providing warrant searches among other lookup services for a fee.
- CriminalWatchdog.com – Subscription service for continuous monitoring of criminal records and warrants.
