Why Mandatory Court Appearance

[cmergonoto]

My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: California

I got a ticket for illegal right turn and i also forgot to bring my calif driver license. They issued me a ticket and I just got a letter from the court saying that i have to pay $569 an that court appearance is mandatory.
why cant I just pay the bail? what are they going to do to me in court? I have 4 tickets previously. according to their website, it is mandatory if i have 4 previous convictions. But I dont think that is the reason.

[cdwjava]

What county is this?

And, what are the violations? (the code sections, please)

[cmergonoto]

What county is this?

And, what are the violations? (the code sections, please)

santa clara county,

VC-22100A-I
VC-12951A-I

[cdwjava]

You forgot the part where the SCC Court can make appearance mandatory "if the court orders it" or "if the validation criteria requires it." I am not sure what the validation criteria might refer to, but since you did not have a license in your possession (12951(a)) it may be because of that.

Your first court appearance will be to enter a plea. If you wish to contest these violations, you might want to consider looking into a trial by written declaration first. If you just want to pay the fines and be done with it, bring a checkbook or credit card to the court.

[That Guy]

... but since you did not have a license in your possession (12951(a)) it may be because of that.

I have seen mandatory court appearances are usually required for speeding citation of 25+ over the limit, or over 100+mph, for juveniles, (none of which apply here) or when the court must admonish the defendant regarding a possible license suspension (don't take my word on this one either). The reasoning cdwjava gave also makes a whole lot of sense.

Assuming the officer marked that as a correctable violation and that you do in fact have a valid license to present, you would want to appear in court anyways, wouldn't you? Yes, I realize that it can be done by mail, however, I learned a good lesson to NOT conduct any court business by mail.

And I am not sure what were your 4 other conviction or what is the time span during which you earned that many, but with this fifth violation point possibly ending up on your record, you should probably glance at this DMV page regarding Vehicle Code Violations used in Negligent Operator Counts & Violation Point Assessment

Good luck!

[cmergonoto]

You forgot the part where the SCC Court can make appearance mandatory "if the court orders it" or "if the validation criteria requires it." I am not sure what the validation criteria might refer to, but since you did not have a license in your possession (12951(a)) it may be because of that.

Your first court appearance will be to enter a plea. If you wish to contest these violations, you might want to consider looking into a trial by written declaration first. If you just want to pay the fines and be done with it, bring a checkbook or credit card to the court.

So it is the Palo Alto Courthouse. I called the clerk and she said the reason why is that I have 3 previous traffic points in 2009, which one of them will be cleared this August. Do you think that is the reason?

the 4 convictions are just speeding and traffic stuffs.