Rule 64.Seizure of persons or property

Generally. At the commencement of and during an action, all remedies providing for seizure of person or property are available for two purposes — compelling appearance, and securing satisfaction of the judgment ultimately to be entered — under the circumstances and in the manner provided by statute. The rule opens the door; the statutes furnish the remedies.

Capias. A capias may issue where a person subject to the court's jurisdiction has failed to appear for a scheduled hearing, is evading service of process, leaves the jurisdiction, or for any other just cause. It is an order for the apprehension of that person, and in a family court its usual subject is someone who has simply stopped turning up.

What happens next. A person taken on a capias out of this court is brought before the court immediately if it is in session. Otherwise, in default of the specified bond, they may be held in a facility of the Department of Corrections or of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families for appearance at the next session.

The immediacy is the safeguard. An order that produces a person carries an obligation to deal with them at once rather than to hold them while the court gets around to it, and the alternative to that is bond, not indefinite detention.