US Citizen living in UK bench warrant in US

I’m an American living in the UK. When I got married to a UK citizen five years ago, I changed my name on my passport. I had a child from a previous marriage and a child from this marriage. When I got divorced two years ago I decided to change my last name and the kid’s last names to a family name so that we would all have the same last name. I alerted passport and have been issued new passports reflecting our new last name.

I recently discovered that I have a warrant for failure to appear in court in the US from ten years ago. I thought that it was all taken care of and never thought about it again.

So here is the problem. Will I get arrested coming INTO the US on a bench warrant? I called the DA in the state to try and sort it and was told that in CA you have to appear in person to have the warrant lifted. The warrant is under my maiden name. I spoke with a lawyer about it and was told NOT to tell them that my name has changed since they might update the warrant. He said that I probably wouldn’t get arrested unless I flew into CA, which I won’t. He said that I wouldn’t have been issued a new passport if the warrant came up.

I need to come back to the US to help take care of my Mom and I will have children with me. I don’t know what to do. Any advice would be helpful.

That is true--do not fly into the same state or even go there.

But normally those local warrants will not stop you at the airports. Unfortunately you cannot be 100% certain it did not get upgraded to a felony warrant etc.--and that would mean you indeed would be arrested, and then presumably bonded out after some days.