Speeding in School Zone on a Rental Truck

[Speedy Gonzalez]

Options:

1. Mitigation - your fine will be lowered and you will be found guilty. This cannot be reported on your record since it was an automated safety camera. It's treated like a parking ticket.
2. Contested - you can contest without any penalty, and still change to mitigated in nearly every Washington court at the last minute. This will allow time for you to perform discovery and see what evidence they provide.
3. Deferral - you pay a slightly higher fine (monitoring fee), and they dismiss the case provided you stay clean for a year (in King county) - but this can be a double edged sword since if you get convicted of any moving violation within said year, you will not only forfeit your original monitoring fee and pay the fine of your new ticket, you also get the pleasure of paying your original ticket's fine.

So basically, I always contest to see if they didn't do everything right; make them work for the money. Every time. There is no increased penalty for contesting.

[panzhuming]

Options:

1. Mitigation - your fine will be lowered and you will be found guilty. This cannot be reported on your record since it was an automated safety camera. It's treated like a parking ticket.
2. Contested - you can contest without any penalty, and still change to mitigated in nearly every Washington court at the last minute. This will allow time for you to perform discovery and see what evidence they provide.
3. Deferral - you pay a slightly higher fine (monitoring fee), and they dismiss the case provided you stay clean for a year (in King county) - but this can be a double edged sword since if you get convicted of any moving violation within said year, you will not only forfeit your original monitoring fee and pay the fine of your new ticket, you also get the pleasure of paying your original ticket's fine.

So basically, I always contest to see if they didn't do everything right; make them work for the money. Every time. There is no increased penalty for contesting.

These actually sound very familiar, as I've read through some threads in this forum, and already applied Deferral for one ticket I got earlier this year I understand what each option mean, but I want to understand more for this specific ticket what would be a better option:

1) Contest by mail, and say they didn't send out the notice within certain days
2) Choose Contest, and then ask for Discovery. However, if I want to contest by mail, how does this work? Do I choose 'contest by mail', but does not provide my statement and only ask for Discover?
3) Ask for mitigation. This seems the least favorite option, after I found there are things that I maybe able to contest

[Speedy Gonzalez]

Doing a trial by mail is the LEAST recommended way to handle it. The same evidence rules do not apply, and there is NO appeal process available if you lose. If you get a judge in a bad mood, you are done for with no recourse.

So it really comes down to this: Is it worth your time to drive to the court at least twice?

[panzhuming]

Doing a trial by mail is the LEAST recommended way to handle it. The same evidence rules do not apply, and there is NO appeal process available if you lose. If you get a judge in a bad mood, you are done for with no recourse.

So it really comes down to this: Is it worth your time to drive to the court at least twice?

I see. Thanks for the suggestion!! I will contest in court, and ask for Discovery then.

[Speedy Gonzalez]

Create a formal discovery request, serve it on the prosecutor, and file a copy with the court. See this thread. Barry has a document you can use. You can kill three birds with the same trip. Make the trip to the prosecutor's office, have them stamp all three copies, go directly to the court, file your ticket for contested hearing, and have them stamp the two remaining copies of the discovery request, leaving one for them to file. While you are there, find out the filing date of the ticket.

A few other questions of interest in this case... don't know if they would go anywhere, but Brendan or Barry could probably answer.

1. The camera -- when was it last certified for speed measurement accuracy, and by whom?
2. Did the officer that signed the ticket have personal knowledge as to the accuracy of the device? Extremely doubtful.
3. Did the officer even list the device's serial number in their statement?
4. Did the officer name/identify the rental agency in their statement?
5. Did the officer mention at all that it was a rental? If not... the 14 day rule argument should be sufficient.

These will probably be answered by your discovery request.

[panzhuming]

Create a formal discovery request, serve it on the prosecutor, and file a copy with the court. See this thread. Barry has a document you can use. You can kill three birds with the same trip. Make the trip to the prosecutor's office, have them stamp all three copies, go directly to the court, file your ticket for contested hearing, and have them stamp the two remaining copies of the discovery request, leaving one for them to file. While you are there, find out the filing date of the ticket.

A few other questions of interest in this case... don't know if they would go anywhere, but Brendan or Barry could probably answer.

1. The camera -- when was it last certified for speed measurement accuracy, and by whom?
2. Did the officer that signed the ticket have personal knowledge as to the accuracy of the device? Extremely doubtful.
3. Did the officer even list the device's serial number in their statement?
4. Did the officer name/identify the rental agency in their statement?
5. Did the officer mention at all that it was a rental? If not... the 14 day rule argument should be sufficient.

These will probably be answered by your discovery request.

Greatly appreciated Gonzalez!!! But I don't really understand about the 'trip' - shouldn't I be able to do everything (serve the discovery request on the prosecutor, file a copy with the court, file my ticket for contested hearing, etc) by mailing them my response of the ticket and faxing/mailing them my discovery request? Why do I need to go there?

For the 5 questions you asked, is Discovery Request supposed to answer all of them, especially #1? If not, is there anything else that I need to do to find the answer (again, especially for #1)?

[Speedy Gonzalez]

It is up to you, but I always do it in person just to have the stamps on my copy as proof of service and filing with the court. There is never any question this way. I think I have used the US Postal Service twice in the past couple years. I just don't trust these kinds of things to them.

[panzhuming]

Hi,

I received response from Lake Forest Park Municipal Court regarding my Discovery Request. However, what I received is not the discovery. Instead, they sent me a notice that my hearing has been rescheduled for the prosecuting attorney to be present due to my discovery request. What does this mean? When will I receive the discovery?

[Speedy Gonzalez]

What date was your hearing rescheduled to? The prosecutor is the one required to respond to your discovery request. They must send the discovery response to you at least 7 days before the hearing. They have until the day before your hearing to get you a copy of the officer's sworn statement. Like I said before, if you can PROVE it was a rental, and the rental agency is NOT identified as a witness on the discovery response, then you have a valid motion to quash any statement that the rental agency made.

[panzhuming]

It was rescheduled to Aug 6th.

I was finally able to get in touch with the prosecuting attorney (actually, the assistant). She told me the ticket I received is already considered the discovery. I am copying some info from what I have on the ticket. Could you kindly help me on how I should defend?

Violation Date: 04/10/2012
VEHICLE PLATE#: (the rental car's plate number)
STATE: AZ (I guess this is where the rental car was registered)
Posted Speed: 20 mph
Actual Speed: 26 mph
Location: WB NE 178th st @ 37th Ave Ne, Lake Forest Park, WA
Name: (they got my first name wrong - there is an extra 'O' in it)
From the officer:

I certify as true and correct under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of Washington that based upon my review of photographs and/or a video recording made by an automated traffic camera, I have probable cause to believe, and do believe, that on the date and at the time and location indicated above, the operator of the vehicle described above was in violation of the Revised Code of Washington (RCW) 46.61.440 as adopted by Lake Forest Park Municipal Code (LFPMC) 10.08.020 and enforced pursuant to LFPMC 10.06 (Automated Traffic Safety Cameras). The photographs and/or video recording taken together show the vehicle and its license plate, portray a fair and accurate representation of the location listed above and show that the vehicle operator was SPEEDING IN A SCHOOL ZONE. The school zone is fully posted with school speed limit signs. The speed of the vehicle at the time of the violation is set forth above and in the data line above the vehicle photograph. This infraction was electronically transmitted to American Traffic Solutions on the date of issuance.
Signed at Lake Forest Park, Washington

Issue Date: 05/25/2012