How to fax a motion for continuance in traffic court?

Question

hey,

my friend has a court hearing today for a speeding ticket in lower kittitas county, WA that she was given inadequate notice/time to prepare for. we called the court today to let them know we wanted to reschedule and they said we need to fax a motion for continuance to the court to be reviewed by the judge later today. i am having trouble finding a form for this and would like to know what the standards for it are/see an example if you have one? thanks!

Answer 1

There probably is no specific form.  Look at the notice received.  Copy the caption onto a document and under the caption write "..., the respondent, hereby request that the hearing that is scheduled for ________ be adjourned until __________, or the Court's next available date.  The reason for requesting this adjournment is because.

Then Sign, with telephone number and address listed.  

Answer 2

Call the court back and see if there is such a form.  Usually motions like this are prepared by a lawyer - the fee to have a lawyer prepare such a motion will be a lot more expensive that the ticket itself.........also, rarely do courts allow continuances for speeding tickets as there is really nothing to "prepare" - either you were speeding or you weren't.  

Traffic courts want to proceed very quickly and not turn a traffic ticket into a "federal case".  For this reason, if the cop doesn't show up, you win - the cop doesn't get to file a motion for continuance.

Answer 3

I think I would just write a message to the judge, making sure you call him/her "Your Honor," explaining the circumstances and asking for a continuance.  There is probably a form for this, but remember, judges are human, too, and a letter of explanation should take care of it.

Answer 4

A motion for continuance is just a request to the court asking them to put off the case. Don't worry about a form or the layout - if the hearing is today speed is more important than form.

She just needs to write a brief note asking for a delay, and explaining why, and fax it over.

Richard