speeding ticket

What is the name of your state? California

I was given a speeding ticket on 3-02-03, the office gave an appearance date of April 19, 2003, at 8:30 AM. This happen to a Saturday. I went to the court house at the noted time and date written on the ticket; however, the courthouse was closed.

On June 20th (or so) I recieved a notice from the Superior Court that I have until July 18th to post bail.

The questions are;

1) Isn't there a time limit, something about a speedy trial?

2) Sine I went to the court house as instructed, and nobody else was there, shouldn't the ticket be dismissed?

Richard Madrid

cute.....neato...kewl...... ya think ya found a way to scam the system......

hahahahah YOU LOSE!

Unless you want to play like the guys in the movie Dumb and Dumbber you should have had the sense to ask this when you check the calendar and contacted the court house to see if they had saturday court....here in NYC they do!

Maybe if you tell me what kind of a job you have, garbageman, metal recycler, street sweeper, maybe with your lack of education,.... the judge will feel sorry for you, and dismiss the ticket.

are you a drug addict or an alcoholic...that could work in your favor.

[abezon]

Go to court & tell the judge that you were given an 8:30 am Saturday court date by the clerk. You showed up at the appointed hour only to find the courthouse closed. This should be enough to get you out of the failure to appear charge and get you a rescheduled hearing. You have an even better chance if you got something in writing listing your court date.

Speedy trial won't help you much -- the case law makes you jump through all sorts of hoops before you can raise this issue. You'd also need a definite time limit in CA law, since the constitutional speedy trial right is merely, 'Not really, really long. How long? We'll know it when we see it.'

Oh, and ignore that badtenant bozo.

[justin2003]

Originally posted by Richard Madrid
What is the name of your state? California

I was given a speeding ticket on 3-02-03, the office gave an appearance date of April 19, 2003, at 8:30 AM. This happen to a Saturday. I went to the court house at the noted time and date written on the ticket; however, the courthouse was closed.

On June 20th (or so) I recieved a notice from the Superior Court that I have until July 18th to post bail.

The questions are;

1) Isn't there a time limit, something about a speedy trial?

2) Sine I went to the court house as instructed, and nobody else was there, shouldn't the ticket be dismissed?

Richard Madrid

The ticket will state: "You must appear on or before this court date @ XXX location"

1) Your right to a speedy trial is 45 days out from the date of plea.

2) You were instructed to appear at your arraignment. It was not a trial. If you enter a plea of not guilty, you will get a trial which is not to be more than 45 days out unless you waive time.

If you happen to get a mean judge you must have to post the full bail to get a court trial. However, you have a lot of wiggle room. This will also depend on if you went to the court on the next possible date.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[lwpat]

You could possibly have several problems. Since you have not shown up for court then a guilty verdict has probably been entered for your speeding ticket. In addition you now have a failure to appear charge and you license could be suspended.
All for something you could have taken traffic school and had dismissed.

If your license is suspended and you get stopped then you may spend the night in jail. Unfortunately you are not always notified of a suspension and find out the hard way.

My suggestion would be to make an immediate trip to the court and talk to the clerk. Try to get a new trail date and the failure to appear charge dropped. I have no idea how you are going to explain why you waited almost ninety days.

The cardinal rule of an legal situation is that you never miss a court date. I understand that there was an error in the date but you are still the responsible party. You should have immediately contacted the court on Monday and scheduled a new date.

California law provides that your have the right to have the trial take place within 45 days of the date of the arraignment. BUT, you have yet to be arraigned, and as such, the 45 day period has yet to commence.

Should the ticket be dismissed? Probably not, but that is not to say that there isn't one or more judges that would be sympathetic to your situation.

Regarding the rest of the replies... Richard did not say anything about being charged with a failure to appear, and it is unlikely that such a charge would be added prior to July 18. It appears that the court has recognized the error on the citation and has simply rescheduled the final appearance date. A failure to post bail or appear by July 18 might result in the addition of a failure to appear charge or the issuance of a bench warrant.

Good luck.