Court Problems In Iowa

[iowangirl]

What is the name of your state? Iowa


A cop clocked me speeding and wrote a ticket for 76 in a 65. It was on a divided highway and the cop was traveling in the opposite direction. I wasn't going that fast and wanted to fight the charge. The officer said that he clocked me from behind and I was going 68 mph. In court the officer remembered no such occurance, but the trial was over a month later. The officer said that I was going 82 in a 65 and the prosecuter wanted to make the charge to that. Anyway I lost my case. When I got the summons for sentencting my name was mispelled. I checked online records and the name is mispelled there too. Should I bring the issue up before sentencing or should I just try to appeal the decision?

[CdwJava]

What are you using as grounds for appeal? The apparent lie? Does the speed make that much of a difference?

The spelling issue is not likely grounds for appealing anything ... only submitting a notice of correction as to how to correctly spell you name.

- Carl

[iowangirl]

The grounds for appealing would be the misspelling of the name. If I get sentenced for 82 it will mean higher fines and surcharges. Either way though my insurance will most likely go up. So in the end it won't be that big of a deal. If my name is spelled incorrectly as the person sentenced then if left like that then how can they put that on my record?

[CdwJava]

Originally Posted by iowangirl

The grounds for appealing would be the misspelling of the name. If I get sentenced for 82 it will mean higher fines and surcharges. Either way though my insurance will most likely go up. So in the end it won't be that big of a deal. If my name is spelled incorrectly as the person sentenced then if left like that then how can they put that on my record?

Your misspelled name is NOT grounds for appeal. Maybe if you hire an attorney they can find SOME reason to appeal ... but it ain't gonna be the spelling issue.

- Carl

[iowangirl]

Can the charges get dismissed due to errors in the court records? My name was spelled correctly on the ticket************** Somewhere along the line it got messed up. Is there anything that I could say or do before sentencing to help lessen the impact of the charges?

[iowangirl]

Can they put a charge on my record if the names don't match?

[CdwJava]

They CAN, but being that it's a speeding ticket, chances are it will eventually just match up to your license record.

And you can always point out the error to them. Or, be used to them misspelling your name.

And the spelling issue will not lessen the impact of the offense, nor is it cause to drop the charges. If that were the case, a lot of people would go free ... very often we don't get the right spellings of the names, or they get changed in court. It's why criminal offender records often have a list of "aliases" that also match back to the defendant.

- Carl