Court Case Dismissed and Refiled Due to Error

[Kstev]

My question involves traffic court in the State of: Texas

The officer writing up my traffic violation wrote the wrong code. I went to court ready to defend either the code he wrote down or the actual violation he said I committed. The officer then dismissed and refiled the case with the correct code in court. I now have to start over from scratch, wait for my ticket in the mail, schedule a court date, and return to court in about two months. This does not seem fair that i have to waste more time for the officer's mistake. Is there anything that I can do?

[blewis]

While I'm not familiar with TX law, the same holds true in most states (probably ALL) and in federal court. The problem is that the ticket represents a "charging document". And, while a defective charging document is grounds for dismissal in most cases, the dismissal is "without prejudice" -- meaning that it CAN be refiled. As it states in one of our cases, "Our state and federal constitutions both permit retrial after a conviction is reversed due to a defect in a charging document."

Sorry,
Barry

[jk]

so they dismissed the ticket for improper passengers and wrote one for the cellphone?

Until the statute of limitations to make the charge had passed, this is always a possibility.

[That Guy]

Not unusual at all... It does not happen often, as far as I know, but it is legit!

And by the way, while I do not know what either of the charges were, and while you could try and dramatize it as much as you want, but seriously, how much preparation did you have to to do for a charge you did not even come close to committing? And one you knew the officer couldn't really testify to?