Ok guys so I got a speeding ticket on January 4th 2012. I was heading through barstow on the way to vegas on a family vacation. The cop pulled me over asked for license insurance and registration. I told the cop i didnt know where the registration and insurance was because the car was a rental so he said ok and left. Within two minutes he came back had me sign the ticket which was said i was doing 88mph but he did not show me a radar or anything. I was literally pulled over for less then 5 minutes. The ticket never came into the mail and i kept checking online to see if my ticket would be put on my record and it never showed up i thought i was in the clear until 2 days ago when i got a letter in the mail saying the cop wrote down January 4th 2011 and they just caught that mistake. I now have a mandatory court date and was wondering if they could do that. I am a bit confused on why i cant just send in payment of the ticket. Also i heard that if a cop messes up on a ticket it should be thrown out but i also hear they might have changed that law. Any input would help. Thanks in advance.

-Brandon

Fight it!

Call the court and explain your situation.

Yeah thats what i would do.
It shouldnt be your fault that the cop wrote the wrong date.
You will not get the ticket thrown out for just the wrong date unfortunately.

does your yellow copy say jan 4th 2011?
If so you should be able to fight it.
If he cant get the right date, maybe he didn't get the right speed

All depends on the court. Some will let you plead your case, others will resent you for even trying. I have heard numerous stories of judges cutting people off to tell them that they know what they are trying to do and it isnt going to work.

Your BEST bet if you have to go to court regardless is to submit discovery requests to the department asking for everything from the dashcam footage, to the radar calibration certificate. I would also ask for the officers most recent visual speed estimation training certificate.


Just the fact that you are asking for this stuff will let the officer know that you are not just rolling over and to expect the worse come the day of the trial. A lot of the time they just wont show if they know they are in for a fight or they will instantly dismiss the ticket once the case is called infront of a judge.

Did the ticket indicate that he got you on Radar? Did he list the radar unit number?

Thanks for the information I really appreciate it. I have to find the ticket but if i remember correctly it did indicate that he got me on radar and there was a number i tried searching that number on google and nothing came up so im assuming its just the serial number of the radar gun he used.

Yeah the number of the radar isnt a description of what type of unit he used. If it is radar its a bit easier in court to get released than a solid lidar clock. If the date was mistaken and you have to show in court, go do what harry just suggested, it will give you some backing info to your case. Also assuming it was CHP, was the paper you got in the mail something yellow or pink saying something was not correct with the officers sign? If that's the case you have a high chance that officer will show in court, lazy ones will just DGAF and not even fix it and drop it there. Happened to me two years ago, where I didn't receive it for months. Also to add on lately I haven't heard of cases being dropped in front of the judge.

I just fought a ticket with my Fiance (Rancho Cordova ticket, Sac County Courthouse on Bicentennial. and the officer showed up to the trial... only to see that we were heavily prepared and dismissed the ticket in front of the judge.


Here you can read the whole thing. I go into how we were going to prove the officer wrong even though it never got to that point:

Subaru Legacy International • View topic - Just got my Fiances speeding ticket dismissed! Here's how...


"An interesting side note, it seems as though California might have passed a bill in which if an officer doesnt show up to a requested officer trial (thereby almost ensuring the charges are dropped), then either the citation amount or a prorated amount is deducted from the officers pay or yearly bonus or the departments XXXXX fund.

If this is the case, than I assume the loophole for the officer is that he just needs to show up and at the first sign where he knows it wont just be his word vs the other (like with supporting info or witnesses), he just dismisses the charges and heads back to work... no pay docked and he doesnt have to spend an hour or two getting his daily policing activities dissected in front of a judge."

The tip for the discovery requests came directly from one of the main traffic defense lawyers who was there representing like 5 different cases. Every time I have been to Bicentennial for traffic court (maybe 4 times over the last few years) I always see this attorney, so the last time I sparked a conversation with him.




I am by no means a lawyer or LEO so please excuse me for incorrect terminology or generalizations and feel free to add/correct anything of your own.

What seems weird is that when I asked for discovery notes I didn't get them with that stupid ticket I got two years ago.

I mean its quite possible it may end up being just like yours but the officer said I was doing 78+ on an offramp that is about 800ft long and is a sharp right at the end. BTW this was pacing. I took good pictures of the offramp and stated that this is not a possible speed to take this offramp at not only that impossible for the officer to have been pacing me for a good enough distance to calculate the speed I was going at. The judge said sure, dropped it to a 1 pointer, traffic school, and a tiny bit lower of a fine. I guess its all going to depend on who you judge is that day, how the officer states his story and if you have a good enough back up to turn it over. It's definitely difficult when the judge is on the state side. Just having a wrong date doesn't make the information provided on the ticket is false aka the speeding. It's always worth a try and fight it in court cause who knows, there's always a chance of winning right? And not going you have zero chances.

This.

You are going to walk a fine line between trying to get your ticket thrown out because of a technicality (which is almost never received well from a judge), and trying to make a legitimate case for proving you committed no violation.


Again, some judges wont even let you finish if they feel you are trying to get "out of the ticket". So you need to do your best to show that you wholeheartedly believe the officer MADE A MISTAKE instead of doing ANYTHING on purpose.


Bottom line is that the outcome of this ticket is going to depend on a lot of things that you wont be able to control (like the mood of the judge), but you wont have any chance at all of having the ticket dismissed if you dont at least contest it.


"You cant win the lottery if you dont buy a ticket"

You can always buy a hooker though

You CANNOT fight this particular ticket. I had the same thing happen to me, only I got arrested for failure to appear. "It didn't come in the mail" is NOT an excuse because it says right on the ticket that you signed that it is YOUR resposibility to take care of it whether you receive a notice or not.

You cannot "call the court" and explain it AFAIK, because a judge needs to make the determination. Go to court, tell them you didn't get the ticket in the mail. If you don't have other tickets and the judge is cool, they will cut you a break. They set mine back to the original fine, I paid it and that was the end of it.

My original ticket did say the wrong date on it and I got a yellow piece of paper saying that the officer had put down the wrong date and i have to appear in court. Also yeah it was CHP.

I understand that it is only a courtesy notice that comes in the mail but I kept checking my records online and nothing ever showed up thats why i thought the ticket had just disappeared.

John similar thing happened to me where something on the ticket was wrong and it never got processed into the court system till later on.

So if you've received the correction notice have you gotten anything from the court yet or does your yellow sheet say a date to clear by?