What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? New York City(Queens County)
I received a speeding ticket (driving 74 MPH in a 50 MPH zone). I have a hearing date next week and I just noticed that the ticket failed to state the violation number. However, it does state the description of the violation("Speed in Zone").
Is the lack of stating the violation number (while stating the description of the violation) sufficient to dismiss the speeding ticket?
Thanks
Not exactly. The purpose of the ticket you received is to notify you of the court date and the charge(s) that you will be prosecuted for on that day. The ticket itself is not evidence against you, so any errors on the ticket are not going to help you, with maybe two minor exceptions.
First, you can argue that without the violation number, you were not given proper notice of what you are being charged with and consequently, were unable to adequately prepare your defense (a violation of your due process rights). However, in 99.99999999999999999999999999% of such cases, all that happens is the court date gets adjourned and the cop and/or ADA will give you a new ticket with the violation number listed. So as a practical matter, all this does is get you an adjournment.
Second, you can try to argue that the omission is evidence of the officer's general carelessness, which carelessness also resulted in him improperly calculating your speed. I can say that that argument rarely works when there are significant, multiple errors all over the ticket (as in, NO correct information), so the fact that there is no violation number but a correct description means it's almost certainly not going to help you here.
If the potential points are an issue, you can always appear on the scheduled court date, talk to the ADA to see if they're willing to offer you a no-point (or reduced point) plea deal, and if they don't/you don't like the offer, tell the judge you need an adjournment because of the missing statute number and because you'd like to retain counsel.
Good luck.
