wrong court date on ticket

california. chp cited me for unsafe lane change on 10/31. wrote court date on ticket as 11/30 . said i must appear that date even if no courtesy notice received. court date turned out to be on a sunday but i went that morning anyway to "cma". naturally, it was closed. i called the court daily thru 12/19. there was no info on my ticket. then on 12/30 i got a notice from the court to appear on 12/30. it was postmarked 12/29. i spoke to the court on 12/31. she said they had an amended court date from chp who supposedly mailed notice to me. "didn't you get it?" NO! i did not. and yes, its the same address you mailed your notice to, and i got it, didn't i? she deleted the failure to appear penalties and set a new date for arraignment on 1/30/04 and wants me to go in to the court to sign a new promise to appear.
1. isn't there some kind of due process failure here?
2. should i sign a new promise to appear?
my take: the court sent the ticket back to chp & chp changed the date & returned it to the court without notifying me. the court didnt process it till after 12/19 (the last date i called the court). so by the time the court was able to mail me the notice to appear, i was allowed less than 24 hours notice.
3. are there any grounds on which i may request it be dismissed?

[lwpat]

"isn't there some kind of due process failure here?"

Possibly. CA has a 45 day speedy trial provision. I do not know if it applies to speeding tickets since they are infractions and not criminal proceedings. A local attorney or possibly someone else on the board may know.

"should i sign a new promise to appear?"

Not until you know for sure that the above does not apply.

"are there any grounds on which i may request it be dismissed"

If you show up on your court date and the officer is not there then you can make a motion for dismissal. However, once you have asked for a trial you will not be allowed to take traffic school.
If the courtesy notice lists traffic school then you are eligible and the particular county may allow online traffic school. You can check at
[url]http://www.trafficschoolonline.com/?lcode=4013[/url]

from all i've been able to learn, the 45 day speedy trial does not apply to the arraignment. the 45 days begin upon filing a plea of not guilty at the arraignment.
i'm not thinking about traffic school because i don't plan on loosing if it goes to trial. i was hoping that there would be some other out seeing as how i've been jerked around by this chp. first the wrong court date then not mailing me notice of the new date and lying to the court about it. she's a ditz. it wasn't an unsafe lane change, i signaled, looked in all the mirrors all the required number of times before pulling into the next lane. there was plenty of room. if there wasn't, it would have been because she was going too fast.
i got my failure to appear notice yesterday. so now i'll have to go thru it with the court all over again, ie: "are you sure it's been removed?" etc etc. this vindictive chp is now runnin my life!

[lwpat]

It is just your word against the officer's. Bottom line is that you are going to lose if it goes to trial. Don't you know there is a budget crunch in CA and this is just an extra tax you are going to have to pay for living there.

i don't want to go to trial. that's why i was looking for a get out of jail and pass go card.
because the chp gave me the wrong court date, and then changed it without notifying me, the court issued a warrant for my arrest, added penalties to fines, fines to penalties, demanded that it be paid, in full, and that i appear at the court, within 15 days or, it warned, it shall convict me of the original charge without a trial or a plea, and assess me additional fines and penalties. also, that upon my next encounter with an officer of the law, i should expect to be arrested for the warrant. needless to say, this has caused problems. if the chp had given me a correct court date, i would have appeared, plead, gotten a trial date, gone to trial and been done with it. as it is i have been on the phone nearly every day with the court or attempting to reach the court. i have to take time from work just to go and sign another promise to appear. i think it would be in the interest of justice to end it now (highly prejudiced opinion).
i just wish i knew who could accomodate that.