Keller City Warrants

The Colleyville/Keller Municipal Court

Keller is unusual: it does not operate a standalone municipal court. On October 1, 2012, Keller and neighboring Colleyville folded their two courts into a single Colleyville/Keller Municipal Court — the first regional municipal court in Texas — now housed at the Colleyville Justice Center. Because that regional bench is where a Keller case is actually docketed and signed off, any order recalling the warrant has to come from the Colleyville courtroom — not from Keller City Hall or the Keller police station that sit miles away.

Practically, this means a speeding ticket written on Keller Parkway, an expired-registration stop near Rufe Snow Drive, or a code-compliance citation from a Keller neighborhood is filed and decided in Colleyville, while the case keeps Keller’s own ordinances and Keller’s own police behind it. The court’s reach is limited to fine-only Class C matters — traffic offenses, parking and animal-control citations, alarm-permit and code-enforcement violations, and the alias and capias pro fine warrants those cases generate when they are left open. It does not handle felonies, Class A or Class B misdemeanors, or any jailable charge; those move to the Tarrant County courts described below. One point worth flagging before you act: paying a Keller citation or warrant online is treated as a no-contest plea, which lands a conviction on your driving record — so confirm the case first, then decide.

The shared bench is presided over by Municipal Judge Sara Jane Del Carmen, who sits for both Keller and Colleyville. The presiding judge sets the dockets and signs the orders that recall a warrant once a Keller case is addressed. Confirm any warrant through the contacts below before you choose a next step.

What this court handles: fine-only Class C misdemeanor, traffic, and city-ordinance offenses arising in Keller (and Colleyville). When a case is not resolved, it can issue an alias warrant on a citation you never answered, or a capias pro fine warrant when a fine or judgment goes unpaid.

How to check for a Keller warrant

Because the regional court runs Keller and Colleyville cases on one nCourt system, the same three channels surface a Keller citation: the court’s nCourt portal, the (817) 993-1223 payments call center, or a defense lawyer who pulls the case for you. Pin down the citation number, the case status, and any bond amount first; the response you choose flows from those three facts.

1. Use the court’s nCourt portal. The Colleyville/Keller Municipal Court runs its online lookups and payments on nCourt; the dependable entry point is the court’s nCourt payment portal. You can typically pull a citation by number or name and see status and any balance.
2. Call the payments call center. For Keller and Colleyville citations, the dedicated pay-by-phone line is (817) 993-1223; the court’s main number is (817) 503-1300. Court staff can confirm a citation, the case status, and whether a bond has been set.
3. Have a lawyer check for you. A defense attorney can confirm a Keller warrant and the amount owed without putting you in front of the clerk first — useful when you would rather understand your exposure before the Keller Police Department is in the loop.

To sweep other North Texas courts at the same time, use our guide on how to find out if you have a warrant.

What warrants the Keller court issues

Every warrant the regional court issues stays inside its fine-only Class C lane, so a Keller city warrant is never a felony hold. Which one you are facing simply marks where the Class C or traffic case broke down: leave the citation unanswered and it hardens into an alias warrant; let an assessed fine go unpaid and the file converts to a capias pro fine; miss a docketed Colleyville Justice Center setting and a separate failure-to-appear warrant can land on top.

Alias warrant

Issued when a Keller citation was written but never answered — no plea, no appearance — so the case sat open on the shared docket. It is the court’s lever for forcing that first appearance on the underlying ticket.

Capias pro fine

Issued after the Keller case has been decided, when the fine or court cost is not paid. Judgment already exists, so clearing it turns on satisfying the balance or arranging an alternative — a payment plan or an ability-to-pay hearing — the court will accept.

Failure to appear

Triggered by missing a scheduled Colleyville/Keller setting. The miss can add its own failure-to-appear charge on top of the original Keller citation, turning one small ticket into two open cases.

An active Keller warrant carries an extra timing risk: the Colleyville/Keller court takes part in the Great Texas Warrant Roundup, the statewide late-winter sweep when agencies clear their warrant rolls by arresting people with outstanding fine-only warrants. During the roundup — and at any routine traffic stop in between — an open Keller or Colleyville warrant exposes you to arrest by the Keller Police Department or any other agency that runs your name. The authority for all of these warrants sits in the rules the Legislature wrote for municipal courts in Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 45.

How to clear a Keller warrant

Four moves get a Keller city warrant cleared, and all of them route back to the Colleyville bench: verify the case and balance, pick a way to resolve it, lean on a lawyer for an advance bond or a recall when that fits, and then close out the original ticket on the reset date. Work through them before the open warrant surfaces at a Keller traffic stop or during the annual roundup.

1. Confirm the citation and the amount with the Colleyville/Keller court. Pull the case, status, and any bond or balance from the court’s nCourt payment portal or by calling the payments line at (817) 993-1223 or the court at (817) 503-1300.
2. Decide your path: pay in full, post a bond for a court setting, or request an ability-to-pay hearing under Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 45.045. Paying satisfies a fine-only warrant outright but records a conviction; a bond reopens the case for a new Colleyville date; and an ability-to-pay hearing lets the judge weigh alternatives such as a payment plan or community service. See Code of Criminal Procedure, Chapter 45.
3. Ask a defense lawyer about a walk-through or a motion to recall. Counsel can sometimes post a bond in advance or move the court to recall the warrant, so you re-engage on a planned date instead of during a Keller Police Department stop.
4. Resolve the case on the scheduled date. Lifting the warrant does not end the Keller citation — you still appear on the new setting in Colleyville and dispose of the underlying ticket.

For the framework that applies in any Texas court, read how to lift a warrant and bond vs. surrender.

What to expect

For most people a Keller city warrant ends in fines and filings rather than time behind bars — yet the very fact that a Colleyville judge decides the case while Keller officers can act on the warrant is the reason a plan pays off. Clearing the warrant only reopens the ticket; once the Colleyville setting is on the calendar and the paperwork is ready, that hearing is something you walk into prepared, not something that ambushes you.

When you pay to lift or post a bond on a Keller warrant, the shared court generally resets the case so the original citation can be disposed of in Colleyville. On that date you can work toward an outcome — for many traffic and Class C tickets that might mean a dismissal after a defensive-driving course, deferred disposition, a reduced fine, or a payment plan, depending on the facts and your record. If money is the obstacle, Texas law requires the court to weigh your ability to pay before treating nonpayment as contempt; that review happens at the ability-to-pay hearing under Art. 45.045 and Art. 45.046. The practical goal is to keep one Keller ticket from compounding into added failure-to-appear charges, a hold on your driver’s-license renewal, a Warrant Roundup arrest, or a booking into the Keller city jail the next time you are pulled over.

How a lawyer helps with a Keller warrant

Put a defense lawyer on a Keller warrant and one person handles every side of the split: verifying the case, gauging what a bond will run, lining up release before the Keller Police Department ever knocks, and appearing in Colleyville to put the citation to rest. The Keller-police-meets-Colleyville-court tangle becomes a single coordinated track instead of an arrest you never saw coming.

L and L Law Group is a Frisco-based criminal-defense firm led by Co-Founding Partners Reggie London and Njeri London. Because the firm appears throughout the Tarrant County courts and works with the kind of regionalized municipal court that hears Keller’s cases, it understands the practical seam here — that a Keller ticket is decided in Colleyville while the Keller Police Department is the agency that can act on the warrant. For a Keller matter, that can mean confirming the warrant through the court, advising whether to pay, bond, or request an ability-to-pay hearing, filing a motion to recall when it fits, and being there when the citation is resolved — and, if a Keller arrest grows into a Tarrant County charge above a Class C, carrying that case too. This site is an educational resource; when you want hands-on help, the firm can take a Keller warrant from confirmation through resolution. Learn more at L and L Law Group.

Related

Keller warrant FAQ

This page is general legal information about Texas law, not legal advice for your specific situation. Statutes and court procedures change; verify current requirements with the relevant court or a licensed Texas attorney. Last reviewed June 22, 2026.