CA Trial By Written Declaration Clarification

[fairuza]

State: California

After submitting a Written Declaration does only a judge get to read it or does the officer who wrote the ticket get to read it also?

Also, after requesting a Trial de Novo is it possible to get a continuation more than once?

Is it true that Friday is the best day to get the court date set in hopes that the officer doesn't show, or is it really all the same odds?

[CdwJava]

Originally Posted by fairuza

After submitting a Written Declaration does only a judge get to read it or does the officer who wrote the ticket get to read it also?

Generally, only the judge. The officer writes his bit, the defendant writes his bit, and only if the judge has a question will the officer generally be contacted for anything further.

The disadvantage for the defendant is that they cannot cross examine the officer or obtain evidence.

Also, after requesting a Trial de Novo is it possible to get a continuation more than once?

It's possible, but you may want to be very careful so the judge might get miffed.

Is it true that Friday is the best day to get the court date set in hopes that the officer doesn't show, or is it really all the same odds?

You don't usually get the option of which day of the week - the court tells you the date. Hearings tend to be set for particular days and times of the week. And since few officers have the weekends off, Friday means very little.

Where I used to work in San Diego County, traffic dates for my region was only heard on Wednesdays, as I recall. Where I work now, they are held on Tuesday.

- Carl

[fairuza]

Thanks for the reply. Good to know the officer can't read the written declaration, it seems more fair that way.

[tonyhca]

City/State--San Jose CA

I'm currently waiting to hear back on my TR205 filing and was wondering how long the officer has to respond and how can I find out the date the TR235 (officer's statement of fact) was filed.

[ENASNI]

Tony.. start your own thread or put this on your previously posted
thread... so you will get your own responses.