What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
My question involves traffic court in the State of: Florida
My question is regarding my first Florida Uniform Traffic Citation that I recently acquired when I was 30mph over the speed limit. The officer explained to me that a mandatory court appearance was required as part of Section 316.189(1). I was inspecting the citation and I had a few questions that I was hoping would be answered on this forum.
In the portion of the citation where it states 3 checkbox options such as 'Criminal Violation Appearance Required As Indicated Below', 'Infraction Court Appearance Required As Indicated Below' and 'Infraction Which Does Not Require Appearance In Court'. I have the 3rd option checked off (Infraction Which Does Not Require Appearance In Court) and other than this under Court Information it is left blank although under Time it states 'Within 30 Days'. I was told I have 30 days to schedule a court date, but I was wondering what the 'Infraction Which Does Not Require Appearance In Court' mean? I am just trying to figure out if some kind of mistake was made or am I reading it incorrectly.
The portion for 'Speed Measurement Device:' was left blank but at the time that the officer had pulled me over, he showed me my speed on the speed gun, I am wondering why this wasn't documented. On a line few places below, it states 'Laser 22211' what does this mean?
Lastly and the most important question, how do I go about this. Should I get a traffic lawyer to fight the case on my behalf or do I go in the direction of making appropriate pleas myself & see where that leads me. Again since this is my first citation and my license has been clean up to this point I don't know what direction to go in.
I apologize for all the questions, but this being my first traffic violation I just felt the need to be educated.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
It sounds like the officer just did a poor job of filling out the ticket. The reason why he told you that you had to appear in court was likely because he probably meant that if you want to contest the ticket, you have to appear in court. Section 316.189(1) violations don't require a court appearance if you're planning on just paying the ticket. The only time you have to show up is if you want to contest it.
The speed box on the ticket should've been filled out and you may be able to contest and beat the ticket by showing that your speed wasn't recorded properly.
As for the Laser 22211 that is the ID number of the speed gun he used. Technically, the officer could go back and find your speed on that day based on the time index, if the lasers have memory to store such information.
My advice would be to get a traffic lawyer if you can afford one. You could try and contest it yourself by claiming the speed info on your ticket was recorded wrong, but since it's your first ticket, try to go with an attorney and see how he or she fights it so you'll be better prepared to defend yourself in the future. Good luck.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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STATcom
The speed box on the ticket should've been filled out and you may be able to contest and beat the ticket by showing that your speed wasn't recorded properly.
According to OP the SMD box was blank, not the speed box.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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free9man
According to OP the SMD box was blank, not the speed box.
Thanks for your responses. Yes the speed box has the speed I was going at and the speed limit speed in it which clearly states I was 30 mph over the speed limit. The Speed Measuring Device is left blank, but a few spaces below it after the checkboxes on a line it stated Laser 22211. Based on the info that you are giving me I guess Laser 22211 is the speed measuring device? it's just not populated where it should be on the citation?
In regards to just paying the ticket and not appearing in court, that's the part I am not sure about. Because the officer clearly mentioned to me that he cannot give me a fine because I was 30mph over the speed limit and I need to make a mandatory court appearance and the judge will decide how much I need to pay as a fine. These were the exact words of the officer, so based on this I inspected the ticket yesterday which brings me back to my original question, what exactly does this line mean 'Infraction Which Does Not Require Appearance In Court' as that's the one that's checked off. So this is what's confusing me. The officer never gave me an option to pay the fine.
Lastly, the part with the driver's information, I noticed after taking a closer look, the portion under the Driver's information where it states Race..based on what information is this populated. It may not be important but it states a 'W' there, so I was just wondering how the officer marks this section down and based on what because I know that information isn't on your driver's license.
Thanks for all the help so far.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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rankone
Based on the info that you are giving me I guess Laser 22211 is the speed measuring device? it's just not populated where it should be on the citation?
That's what it sounds like. The cop just put the SMD info in the wrong space on the cite. This error is not going to do anything to help you. Now, if the officer omitted or screwed up the SMD info in his narrative, it could get the charge dismissed for lack of evidence. But, you need to get the officer's statement through discovery to find that out.
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rankone
what exactly does this line mean 'Infraction Which Does Not Require Appearance In Court' as that's the one that's checked off. So this is what's confusing me. The officer never gave me an option to pay the fine.
Again, this sounds like the officer got sloppy and checked the wrong box. And, again, this is not likely to help you. You need to contact the court and find out when you need to appear (the cop may not have given you a date because, in some jurisdictions, the cop does not have that info. Court dates are scheduled by the court. In other jurisdictions the court tells the cops to schedule court appearances on, for example, the second Tuesday after the violation at 9:00 am)
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rankone
It may not be important but it states a 'W' there, so I was just wondering how the officer marks this section down and based on what because I know that information isn't on your driver's license.
Cops mark that box based on visual observation. If your physical appearance generally appears to be of Caucasian features (or Hispanic - uniform crime reporting statistics generally do not differentiate between White and Hispanic), they will list "W." If you appear Black or Asian, the cop will put "B" or "A," respectively. If you appear to be of mixed race, the cop will just take a guess.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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PTPD22
That's what it sounds like. The cop just put the SMD info in the wrong space on the cite. This error is not going to do anything to help you. Now, if the officer omitted or screwed up the SMD info in his narrative, it could get the charge dismissed for lack of evidence. But, you need to get the officer's statement through discovery to find that out.
Cops mark that box based on visual observation. If your physical appearance generally appears to be of Caucasian features (or Hispanic - uniform crime reporting statistics generally do not differentiate between White and Hispanic), they will list "W." If you appear Black or Asian, the cop will put "B" or "A," respectively. If you appear to be of mixed race, the cop will just take a guess.
Thanks for the response, Yeah it looks like the only option right now is to request for the officer's side of the citation through Discovery. With a couple of inconsistencies in the citation itself, there perhaps are more in the officer's report. It's unfortunate that most of his inconsistencies through the citation aren't enough to help me in the direction of a dismissal. Again it's not only about the officer checking the wrong box but if under Section 316.189(1) I don't have to make a mandatory court appearance but at the same time I wasn't give a payment option it doesn't add up. This is a clear case of handing out misleading information by an officer, he said one thing and then the citation itself says something else, even the address of the event is incorrect. At the end of the day the citation itself is what would be contested in court which has a couple of inconsistencies. I am just trying to see if I can stop this from getting on my record and avoiding the points altogether, as I don't want it to affect my insurance so paying any fine is ok by me.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
Reason for the mandatory appearance is underlined below:
318.19 Infractions requiring a mandatory hearing.—
Any person cited for the infractions listed in this section shall not have the provisions of s. 318.14(2), (4), and (9) available to him or her but must appear before the designated official at the time and location of the scheduled hearing:
(1) Any infraction which results in a crash that causes the death of another;
(2) Any infraction which results in a crash that causes “serious bodily injury” of another as defined in s. 316.1933(1);
(3) Any infraction of s. 316.172(1)(b);
(4) Any infraction of s. 316.520(1) or (2); or
(5) Any infraction of s. 316.183(2), s. 316.187, or s. 316.189 of exceeding the speed limit by 30 m.p.h. or more.
History.—s. 1, ch. 74-377; s. 91, ch. 77-104; s. 1, ch. 81-34; s. 16, ch. 84-359; s. 4, ch. 85-250; s. 12, ch. 86-154; s. 335, ch. 95-148; s. 3, ch. 97-10; s. 5, ch. 97-300; s. 253, ch. 99-248; s. 108, ch. 2002-20; s. 25, ch. 2006-290.
And your fine is looking to be about $250 according to 318.18(3)(b) Amount of penalties.. Now I don't know if that's a base fine and it has additional penalties added to it, or if its straight up the fine you pay.
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rankone
This is a clear case of handing out misleading information by an officer, he said one thing and then the citation itself says something else, even the address of the event is incorrect.
All of what is on the citation occurred AFTER you were allegedly caught speeding at 30mph over. So it will have very little impact on the validity of the citation. now, you were cited for 30mph over... Whether you have a mandatory appearance or not, it has very little impact on your ability to defend yourself. Its not preventing you from putting on a full rack of attorneys on the case, and its not preventing you from simply paying it if you so choose.
So keep things in proper perspective and don't get your hopes too high up that the officer somehow screwed you by saying you had a mandatory appearance (which you do) when the citation says you don't (Because it looks like you do).
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rankone
I am just trying to see if I can stop this from getting on my record and avoiding the points altogether, as I don't want it to affect my insurance so paying any fine is ok by me.
Again, if it was 10 or 15 over, maybe you can get it plead to a non mover... But 30 over? Who knows though... I've not been cited in the Spunshine State!
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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That Guy
And your fine is looking to be about $250 according to
318.18(3)(b) Amount of penalties.. Now I don't know if that's a base fine and it has additional penalties added to it, or if its straight up the fine you pay.
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All of what is on the citation occurred AFTER you were allegedly caught speeding at 30mph over. So it will have very little impact on the validity of the citation. now, you were cited for 30mph over... Whether you have a mandatory appearance or not, it has very little impact on your ability to defend yourself. Its not preventing you from putting on a full rack of attorneys on the case, and its not preventing you from simply paying it if you so choose.
So keep things in proper perspective and don't get your hopes too high up that the officer somehow screwed you by saying you had a mandatory appearance (which you do) when the citation says you don't (Because it looks like you do).
I am prevented from making a payment, because the officer said that the court would decide my fine and for that I have to make a court appearance, there is no question of paying a fine before hand neither was I given that option (by the officer) and neither I am aware of an amount that I need to pay as I have mentioned the ticket doesn't state a fine amount. The address of the event on the citation is incorrect as that address doesn't exist in the vicinity of where I was cited. Again what's important is that everything is rightly document in the officer's report which I would have to request. But on the basis of the citation that was handed to me I am trying to see if a valid argument can be made.
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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rankone
I am prevented from making a payment, because the officer said that the court would decide my fine and for that I have to make a court appearance, there is no question of paying a fine before hand neither was I given that option (by the officer) and neither I am aware of an amount that I need to pay as I have mentioned the ticket doesn't state a fine amount. The address of the event on the citation is incorrect as that address doesn't exist in the vicinity of where I was cited. Again what's important is that everything is rightly document in the officer's report which I would have to request. But on the basis of the citation that was handed to me I am trying to see if a valid argument can be made.
You're prevented from making a payment because of something you did (speeding @ 30mph over the limit requires a mandatory appearance and no fine amount be written on your citation), not because of something the officer did in error....
Again, it makes no difference to me. I'm just letting you know that walking in court expecting them to either be lenient or be generous via some great deal with zero point... All when in reality, part of the reason why you have a mandatory appearance, is likely because the judge wants to chew you out. Who knows... I could be wrong!
Re: What Do Some of the Sections on the Citation Mean
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That Guy
You're prevented from making a payment because of something you did (speeding @ 30mph over the limit requires a mandatory appearance and no fine amount be written on your citation), not because of something the officer did in error....
Again, it makes no difference to me. I'm just letting you know that walking in court expecting them to either be lenient or be generous via some great deal with zero point... All when in reality, part of the reason why you have a mandatory appearance, is likely because the judge wants to chew you out. Who knows... I could be wrong!
I understand, and thanks for giving me your perspective. I am not expecting anyone to be lenient, I just am trying to see what can be done about my situation and what are my options when it comes to putting together a defense. After having my license for a few years & this being the first offense on my record, the judge can want to chew me out all he/she wants but if the facts are inconsistent as the citation is I don't know how that might be possible, but then again anything is possible.