Speedy Trial For Driving Violation ?

Question

My question is that if I recived a speeding ticket and I was assigned a court date a few months after the date of the driving violation, will that quallify for the court to drop the charges because it was not considered a speedy trial?

I tried to find out some information about this and I found that U.S.C § 3161 somewhat touched bases with the info that I was looking for but I could not clearly understand what it was saying.

Please Help, Thank You

Answer 1

No that is not going to get you out of your ticket.  The courts set our court dates so when we write ticket and set a court date it is the date the court's want.  So I wouldn't get to excited thinking the judge is going to drop your ticket over some instructions the Officer received from the court regarding your court date.  Where I work the court asks us to set all traffic a month (plus or minus a couple days-allowing for weekends) from the date of the offense.

Speedy trial is interpreted by the judge and I would be very surprised if a judge believed that it was unreasonable to have your first appearance that far out for a minor traffic ticket.  It's not like you're rotting in a jail cell, you are free to go about your life in the meantime.

On a side note the US Supreme Court does here cases involving traffic stops every session.  I would be happy to quote some to the person that posted that upper courts won't hear cases involving traffic.

Answer 2

Nice try, but no.  What is considered a speedy trial is open for interpretation.  The courts are clogged and that is the fastest they can get you in.  Most judges are going to see that and consider it a speedy trial.  Besides, no higher court is going to hear a case about a driving violation.  You're not going to get out of the ticket because of it.