Statute Discrepancy in a Traffic Ticket?

Question

Hello,

I received a ticket for "following too closely for conditions" two weeks ago due to a minor fender bender (no damage, no injuries, and I wanted the police report to cover me in case this lady tried anything). After discussing with some friends, I emailed the traffic division just to see if night or weekend court dates were possible. I was returned an email a date had been scheduled due to a "statute discrepancy" on the ticket. I went this morning, thinking they had read my email wrong, hoping to pay the ticket and have the court date cancelled. The court date was mandatory because of this statute discrepancy. Apparently, it had nothing to do with me, on the ticket that the officer wrote a statute number that did not exist. Working in the legal field, I pulled the statutes to see what was going on- he was supposed to charge me with .1234 and instead charged me with .1254. The person at the traffic department indicated they had sent the ticket back to the officer to fix, and he did not do so. He also indicated the ticket may be dismissed by the Judge at this court date.

What are the chances of this being dismissed because the officer wrote a wrong number? How should I prepare for this court date? This is my first ticket or first time ever in court. What should I bring? How early should I arrive? I'm assuming not to say much and harm myself? Also, not to seem rude, but if this officer made the error, why do I have a mandatory court date on something that was never supposed to have a court date at all? Any advice I would appreciate!

Answer 1

I'd try fighting the ticket but when you get to court the cop will change the statue before it goes before the judge. The cop may not even show up & it'll get dismissed.

Answer 2

Go to court!!! If the officer fails to appear, the judge will dismiss the ticket because you will have no one to accuse you of anything.

If the officer hasn't changed the statute that you have been accused of,

the judge will likely throw out the charge for wrongful prosecution. Hopefully the only thing you will lose is the time you sped going to ccourt.

Answer 3

The ticket should have a narrative on it describing the facts at issue - the court might simply amend the ticket to conform to the fatcual portion - they'd reason that the error was a simple one, and the fact statement puts you on notice as to the nature of the charges you're facing (but don't be afraid to raise that nonetheless, politely ofcourse; the court may try to orally amend the ticket - you can argue that they need the officer to come down and do that himself).  Errors in fact portions are routinely used to dismiss tickets, and doubtlessly, officers have no idea what they;re doing wrong because they get no feedback.

Answer 4

I don't know what the chances are where you are from. Here the chances are zero, a 5 in the place of a 3 would be invalidate a ticket here. Especially since we also describe the event in another box

"Operated a motor vehicle with expired registration" 123.123 For example.

Our judge would just allow the officer to fix the citation in court.