And I understand that there will be various jurisdictions and legislation involved about this.
The query is- would a minor defect invalidate a speeding ticket? Here I am talking about if the officer put down the wrong time of day (as an example).
I have heard people say they “know” people who have got off on such a technicality, however I query whether such a minor point would make such a difference.
Does anyone know if there is any legislation that wouldallow for a defect in the notice to not invalidate it?
Typically, traffic laws belong to the ‘criminal’ rather than the ‘civil’ category of case. This is not saying they are crimes, but that the State or the People, acting through the police or the DA, alleges that N. violated the law (as opposed to civil suits, where A. brings suit agains B. for sme breach of contract or tortuous action).
On the supposition that speeding and other traffic violations are ‘criminal’ in this sense, then they have to charge you with an offense known to the law at a specific time and place, and to be prepared to make the case against you if you dispute it. Such errors are correctible – if it charges you with speeding at 7;00 PM on Saturday the 2nd, when Saturday was the 3rd, or a similar minor flaw, the judge can accept an amended charge. But if the cop fails to show up for court (since you’re entitled to confront your accuser), or if the error describes something that could not happen (on Hwy 81 in the town of Brighton, when Hwy. 81 doesn’t pass through Brighton), you may be able to get the charge completely dismissed. It depends a great deal on your jurisdiction’s (state’s or province’s) procedural law.
And, of course, IANAL, this isn’t legal advice, at best it’s a summary of what happens often in some places, don’t rely on it for the specifics of your own case, etc.
Thanks Polycarp- not my case- I haven’t been booked for over 20 years. (Says a lot about my lifestyle doesn’t it). I’m in the camp that a minor defect would not invalidate the ticket.
I doubt whether the Court would be all that impressed for wasting their time on such a minor issue anyway.
Things may be completely different in Australia. In New Jersey I would say that it depends greatly from court to court and judge to judge. In general errors are allowed as long as the officer was acting in good faith.
From my many hours of sitting in traffic court as an interested observer, the kind of defects that usually result in a dismissal are those that prevent the defendant from presenting a valid defense to the citation. Something minor like an incorrect time may not be enough.
I’ve prosecuted traffic tickets in Canada, and here, Loach’s information is also correct that different judges have different thresholds for what will invalidate a ticket, but some errors always invalidate a ticket. Citing the wrong statute for example, i.e. speeding is 115(2)§ of the traffic act, but the officer writes 115(2)(b), which is careless driving. The idea is that it’s prejudicial to the defence to have to answer a completely different charge than what is on the ticket. Wrong date will usually get it thrown out, but not if it’s close, i.e. it happened at 1 am, and the officer wrote the previous day’s date, or that kind of thing. Otherwise, make of car, colour, misspellings of driver’s name - that doesn’t usually matter.
I got nailed with a speeding ticket in a speed trap set up on the 8 freeway just outside of Dome, AZ. In all fairness, I was driving 110 at the time, and the cop wrote in 98 because he said I’d have to be arrested for reckless driving at speeds over 100, so I was thankful for that. Though the cop was otherwise nice, he did screw up my address on the ticket though he copied it straight from my license, forgetting to write my apartment number with the address and even misspelling San Diego. All other information (other than the speed) was correct. When I called the phone number on the ticket and spoke to the and asked if these mistakes invalidated the ticket, he said they did not.
A couple months ago i was stopped for speeding and paid off the ticket right away since it was one of those few months where i actually had some spare money laying around.
After looking at the ticket i discovered they got the last letter in my license plate number wrong.
I saw a police officer in the local gas station and asked if it would have mattered that they had some information wrong about me. And his reply was a “probably not” since they had all of my other information correct, including my drivers license identification number.
So i would think that as long as they have the vast majority of the information correct, the ticket will still hold up in court.
As others have said, it depends. I’ve had a judge give me a stern look when I mentioned that my name was spelled as** Santa** instead of** Santo**, for example. On the other hand, I’ve had a case dismissed because the ordinance number was written on the ticket, but the name of the ordinance itself. Even though the clerk looked up the name of the ordinance and it was written on the letter that was mailed to me, the judge said, “Mr. Rugger, today’s your lucky day. The officer didn’t write down the ordinance you violated, and I’m not going to guess.” He circled the spot where the ordinance number was written in red pen, took a stamp that said, “DISMISSED - Lack of Prosecution”.
My biggest advice on tickets and such is that if you have a legitimate error, go to court, but if it’s minor - just pay it.
I’ve gone to court twice over speeding tickets - once because of a speeding trap where the officer accused my 15 year old banana boat of a car of speeding - but he pulled me over AFTER we sat through a stop light together (a stop light that took us in to the next town, fwiw).
I stood up, all nervous, and the cop looked at me - looked at my ticket - and read out loud the year and make of my car and supposed infraction and laughed and dismissed the ticket.
FWIW is pretty much nothing. On roads that border two towns both departments have concurrent jurisdiction. Getting into the next town before he can pull you over is not a get out of jail free card. I have pulled plenty of people over in a neighboring town. I am not going to stop them at an unsafe part of the road just to stop them before they get out of town.
I understand that part - I just thought it was interesting, so I threw that in.
The funny part was that there was just no way my old clunker could have been going that fast and still be in one piece. I knew I hadn’t been speeding - and I was glad I didn’t have to say anything to prove it.
That’s just about how I handle it as a magistrate when I’m doing a traffic docket. Cutesy/nitpicky/gotcha defendants who expect absolute perfection in their tickets are usually out of luck.
I had a ticket dismissed in Illinois a few years ago because it stated I was westbound on an North/South street. Don’t know if that counts as minor or not but the judge dismissed without a moment’s hesitation.
Maybe, maybe not. The ticket is not the only record of the traffic stop. There may be a log of the tickets an officer wrote on that day. There is probably an electronic record of the stop in whatever computer aided dispatch program the department is using. There is probably a recording of the stop with a date/time stamp. There are many ways to prove the time of the stop. A mistake on the ticket does not negate any of that. It depends on the judge.
They don’t invalidate the ticket. The point is that with such errors on the ticket, it is likely that the judge (or jury if it goes that far) will find you not guilty, reduce the fine, or dismiss it entirely. Afterall, if the officer was that inattentive to detail, what else was he wrong about? How can he say he was sure you ran the stop sign when he can’t even write down the correct color of your car, for example.
Back when I was 16, I used to buy alcohol in stores for the cops. One time in court it was revealed that the arrest affidavit said “took beverage from the cooler” when in fact I had taken it from the shelf. Those affidavits were prewritten to improve efficiency and cut down on time. They had a generic narrative typed up on the affidavits and they would just fill out the type of beverage and the store and the address and the person’s name, etc. Well 99% of the time the beverages are taken out of a cooler at the stores. But this particular store was an actual liquor store and not a gas station. I grabeed some vodka or some such off the shelf, not out of the cooler.
In court, the defendant touched on the fact that I did not in fact take the beverage from the cooler as the charge suggested. It was a big enough discrepancy to get the guy off.