You get the date on a piece of paper at arraignment, in a ticket, or in a summons. It is weeks away. Life moves. Set an email reminder now, while the date is still in front of you, so a missed hearing never becomes a bench warrant.
Done in seconds. No sign-up required.
It is rarely deliberate. People intend to show up. The system just gives almost no follow-up between the day you get the date and the day you have to be there.
drop in failure-to-appear rates in NYC after the city started sending text reminders to defendants with summonses
Ideas42 / NYC Criminal Justice Reform study (2018)
bench warrants are active in the US at any given time, the majority issued for failure to appear on minor charges
National Institute of Justice estimates
no-show rate for NYC summonses fell from 47% to 26% with combined reminder texts and a redesigned summons form
Ideas42 / NYC Mayor's Office (Chohlas-Wood, 2020)
The date arrives on paper, often weeks or months in advance. A traffic citation prints a date 30 to 60 days out. An arraignment may set a preliminary hearing two months out. A civil summons can land in the mailbox with a court date eight weeks away. You read the paper once, maybe twice, then put it somewhere.
Between then and the hearing, almost nothing happens. The court does not call. Most courts do not text or email. Some states mail a single reminder a week before, on paper, which lands in the same pile as the original. By the morning of the hearing, the date is competing with everything else in your week. Some people remember the wrong day. Some remember the wrong time. Some forget entirely.
Research from Ideas42 and the New York City Mayor's Office found that two thirds of people who missed court dates did so because they forgot, not because they were deliberately avoiding the system. The fix was straightforward: send a few text reminders. Failure-to-appear rates dropped by more than a third.
The reliable habit is to set the reminder while the paperwork is still in your hand and the date is still fresh. Not the week of. Not when you eventually find the ticket again. The same day. It takes 30 seconds.
Note the hearing date, the exact time, the courtroom or department number, the case number, and the courthouse address. Many courts have several buildings — make sure you have the right one.
Two days gives you time to arrange childcare, transportation, time off, or to call your attorney. The morning-of reminder is too late to fix anything that has come up.
A single reminder email is easy to miss in a busy inbox. BoldRemind keeps reminding you until you mark the hearing done, so the date never quietly slips past.
A good court date reminder includes everything your future self needs at 8am on the hearing day. Put it in the subject and notes when you create the reminder, so you do not have to find the paper in a panic.
Each of these has a full guide below — the short version here.
Missing a court date can trigger a bench warrant, a failure-to-appear charge, a license suspension, or a default judgment. Acting quickly after a missed date matters more than almost anything else.
See the consequences →If you cannot find your ticket or summons, you can almost always look the date up online by name or case number. Do not skip the hearing because you cannot find the document.
How to find it →Most courts allow at least one continuance for good reason if you request it before the hearing. The mistake is waiting and missing the date instead of asking early.
How to reschedule →Everything else about the hearing — the details live here.
Most courts do not. A small number of county and state systems (Los Angeles Superior Court, Durham NC, McHenry County IL, parts of Washington and New York) offer opt-in text or email reminders, usually only after you sign up through their website. Federal courts and the vast majority of state and traffic courts still rely on the paper summons or ticket you got at arraignment. If you want a reliable email reminder, you have to set one yourself.
Find the date and time on your summons, ticket, or release paperwork. Set a reminder for one or two days before that date, using the exact time printed on the document. Include the case number, courtroom, and courthouse address so you do not have to dig out the paper the night before. Set it the same day you receive the date, while everything is in front of you.
The hearing date and time, the courthouse name and address, the courtroom or department number, the case number, the judge or commissioner if listed, and a contact number for the clerk in case anything changes. Add a note about whether you need to confirm appearance the day before, since some courts use a call-in system.
Yes, once you find the date. Call the clerk of the court that filed your case with your name and date of birth, or look up your case online through your state court website. See the full guide on how to find your court date if you do not have the paperwork.
Two days is the sweet spot. It gives you time to arrange transportation, time off work, childcare, or to call your attorney if something has come up. A reminder the morning of is too late for any of that.
Consequences range from a rescheduled hearing to a bench warrant for your arrest, depending on the type of case. Traffic and misdemeanor misses usually result in failure-to-appear charges, license suspension, or default judgment. Felony cases almost always trigger a warrant. See the full breakdown of what happens if you miss your court date.
No. BoldRemind is a personal reminder you set for yourself, like a calendar alarm but more persistent. It is not connected to any court system and does not pull case data from anywhere. You enter the date and the description, and we send you an email before it — and follow up until you mark it done.
Free, no account, takes 30 seconds. You'll get an email before your hearing — and follow-ups until you confirm you appeared or rescheduled.
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