Chance of Getting Traffic School for CVC 22356(B)
My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: California
I was recently ticketed with 22356(b) on Interstate 5 in Kern county on my way to San Francisco. I drove my mom's new car that day for long trip safety reasons due to the condition of my old car. I noticed several time that I was speeding on the freeway due to the amount of pressure needed to get to certain speed is less compare to my old car. I caught myself several time and slowed down. It was such a long boring road and hard to constantly watching the speed all the time.
The CHP caught me eventually and I was ticketed for going 91mph in a 70/65 zone. However, I do not believe I drove above 90 mph. Anyway, I mailed them a check with the total amount plus traffic school fee and the check was sent back along with a letter saying traffic school is not allowed if going 25 mph over the post speed limit or anything over 90 mph. My court date is in February. Can I still go to court and ask for traffic school? What can I say or do in order to increase the chance of granting traffic school so that my insurance premium does not increase?
Thanks in advance for any help!!!
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
California Rules of Court take away the clerk's ability to process a traffic school request if the citation is for anything over 25 mph over the limit. You would have to appear before the judge and make that request to him/her. No guarantee that he will grant your request but the only way to find out is to ask.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
I just realized that I was reading the court date wrong after examining it very closely. I thought I read 2 (February) instead of 12 (December). The 1 is very faint and barely visible behind the letter E for DATE: on the ticket. The date on the court date is in December. Year is 2009.
The date already passed and it is around the time when I sent out my check and got the rejection letter back.
What can I do at this point? Can I still schedule a court date?
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
You need to immediately contact the court here's a link to Kern County Superior Court
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
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rhap4boy
My question involves a speeding ticket from the State of: California
I was recently ticketed with 22356(b) on Interstate 5 in Kern county on my way to San Francisco. I drove my mom's new car that day for long trip safety reasons due to the condition of my old car. I noticed several time that I was speeding on the freeway due to the amount of pressure needed to get to certain speed is less compare to my old car. I caught myself several time and slowed down. It was such a long boring road and hard to constantly watching the speed all the time.
The CHP caught me eventually and I was ticketed for going 91mph in a 70/65 zone. However, I do not believe I drove above 90 mph. Anyway, I mailed them a check with the total amount plus traffic school fee and the check was sent back along with a letter saying traffic school is not allowed if going 25 mph over the post speed limit or anything over 90 mph. My court date is in February. Can I still go to court and ask for traffic school? What can I say or do in order to increase the chance of granting traffic school so that my insurance premium does not increase?
Thanks in advance for any help!!!
If you read CA Rules of Court 4.104, it states that the clerk is authorized to grant traffic school unless the speed is 26mph or greater above posted limit. However it does NOT say shall grant. In your case, the speed is 21mph over the limit, which should be eligible. If you received the letter stating that it's the court's policy not to grant traffic school for cases where the speed is between 90 and 96mph, you'll have grounds for appeal. In any case, you must clear up your failure to appear charge first.
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rhap4boy
I just realized that I was reading the court date wrong after examining it very closely. I thought I read 2 (February) instead of 12 (December). The 1 is very faint and barely visible behind the letter E for DATE: on the ticket. The date on the court date is in December. Year is 2009.
The date already passed and it is around the time when I sent out my check and got the rejection letter back.
What can I do at this point? Can I still schedule a court date?
As others said, you must contact the court ASAP and find out how to schedule an appearance.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
I just email them and got a reply back that on Feb 8, my case will go failure to appear and I should call Monday after 3 to see whether they are taking add ons due to jury trial this week.
My question now is about the 70/65 speed limit. On the ticket, it says P.F./Max Spd is 70 and Special is 65. What exactly does that mean?
Also, does it say anywhere in CA Rules of Court that anything above 90 is not eligible for traffic school?
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
That's my point - Rules of Court only prohibit the clerk from granting traffic school in cases where the speed is more than 25mph over the posted limit. There is absolutely no rule that says "No traffic school if the speed is more than 90mph."
Since you are charged with VC 22356(B), the posted limit must be 70mph and any speed violation below 96mph is eligible for traffic school. If the posted limit was 65mph, you would have been charged with VC 22349(A) and would not be eligible for traffic school. It's possible the clerk didn't notice you were ticketed for 91 in a 70 (21 over limit) rather than 91 in a 65 (26 over limit).
Any chance you could scan and post the letter from the court? The main question I have is whether the court has a stated policy that prohibits the clerk from offering traffic school to VC22356(B) defendants where the speed is more than 90mph but still under the 25mph threshold.
If there is such a policy, you'd have good grounds for appeal. If it was a mixup at the clerk's office, you might just have to talk to the supervisor. If that doesn't work, feel free to set a court date and ask the judge for traffic school with the explanation that the traffic clerk doesn't know their a** from elbow.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
I initially went on the assumption that the limit was 65... My bad for not making the connection between 22356(b) and the associated 70mph limit.
Good job HA :)
Not sure what a "special" limit of 65 might mean... Although 22356(b) does in fact allow for a special limit for certain types of vehicles (described under VC 22406), but even then, that "special limit" is 55mph... So the officer has got some 'splaining to do as far as his made up special limit.
The unfortunate thing is that the officer will not be at the arraignment and therefore, that explanation may not come through until the trial date. So assuming they will take you in for an arraignment (before the case goes FTA) you better hope for a judge who will allow for anything other than a simple "guilty/not guilty" at the arraignment... Otherwise you're stuck with having to go with a TBD or worse yet, having to returning to court for your trial.
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rhap4boy
I just email them and got a reply back that on Feb 8, my case will go failure to appear and I should call Monday after 3 to see whether they are taking add ons due to jury trial this week.
Careful, as I think that might mean Monday February 1st as opposed to Monday February 8th...
I am surprised that it has not gone to FTA yet (good for you)... Usually courts will allow 10 days past the appearance/extension date afterwhich they will add the FTA, (see VC 40508(a), the $250+ fine), the license hold and possibly send it to collections. This court is allowing 50 days instead.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
I just received a courtesy notice today that I must clear this citation on or before 02/05/10. Does that mean the clerk also interpreted the date wrong?
Someone suggested that maybe there might have been construction going on therefore the 65? I don't remember any construction.
Not sure how to upload pictures, I posted tickets and letters to photobucket and linked here.
I blocked personal info. If it will help, I can email the rest of the information.
What do I do now or how to proceed or what to say when I go next week?
Thank you so much for all the help!!!
Here is my citation
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/Citation.jpg
Here is the traffic school reject letter
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...fficSchool.jpg
Here is the courtesy notice I received today
http://i946.photobucket.com/albums/a...y/Courtesy.jpg
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
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rhap4boy
I just received a courtesy notice today that I must clear this citation on or before 02/05/10. Does that mean the clerk also interpreted the date wrong?
No, the clerk did not interpret the date wrong. Notice it says "YOU HAVE FAILED TO CLEAR THIS CITATION"... And that could only mean that you failed to appear on your original scheduled appearance date. Again, the vehicle code specifically states that you have 10 days past the original appearance date before the case is considered an FTA (failure To Appear) so the fact that this court has given you a couple of months worth of time and still sent you a warning, is beyond me. But that works in your favor so good for you...
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rhap4boy
What do I do now or how to proceed or what to say when I go next week?
I would print out the Rule that HA has cited (you'll find it HERE), show it to them, tell them that the limit is 70 and therefore you're being charged with 21 over not 26 over...and see what they say...
My guess is that the answer you'll get re the "No traffic school... anything over 90mph" will be it is a local court rule/policy not to offer that... And unless someone can post something that forbids the court from setting its own policy regarding traffic school eligibility, I am not sure how you could argue against that.
Even then, you may not get anywhere though due to the fact that your citation shows that strange "special 65mph speed limit".. You may have to see the judge and only they can answer the question as to how you can proceed forward to achieve that.
The other odd thing is that your fine is shown as $245 on the courtesy notice. All while the minimum recommended bail amount (California Uniform Bail Schedule) shows:
- $332 for 16mph-25mph over the limit (assuming a 91mph in a 70mph zone)
- $446 for 26mph+ over the limit (assuming 91mph in 65mph zone).
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
He's charged with 91 in a 70, that much is clear. My guess is that the $245 is the fine for the FTA or maybe the software wasn't updated with new fine schedules... Only the court will know for sure.
As far as traffic school is concerned, you are definitely in a grey area. The rule I cited earlier is Rule 4.104
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/rules/in...nkid=rule4_104
It has no provision to deny traffic school if the speed is more than 90mph.
I also looked up local rules of court for Kern county @ http://www.kern.courts.ca.gov/pdf/Lo...lRules2010.pdf
There is a one-page section for traffic rules, but it also has nothing about denying traffic school for cases where the speed exceeds 90mph.
Another issue here is that the grammar of the paragraph is slightly ambiguous, as well. One way to interpret it would be that the statement after the comma is a rule of thumb for defendants cited in VC 22349a zones, since 65 + 25 == 90, and any speed above 90mph is ineligible. On the other hand, it could also be an unwritten local court policy to deny traffic school for speeds above 90mph.
At this point, you have to go to court anyway to take care of the FTA, and the judge might let you take traffic school for the speed violation. If the judge doesn't let you take traffic school, feel free to plead not guilty and raise the traffic school issue on appeal.
There is a strong case law precedent against judges setting capricious and arbitrary blanket policies in regard to granting traffic school. People v. Wozniak being the most known example. On the hand, I do not see any case law in regard to court policies limiting the clerk's authority to grant traffic school beyond the limits set in Rule 4.104(b)(2) It would be an interesting issue to raise on appeal as abuse of judicial discretion, but it would not be a trivial project.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
I went to the court today and the Judge granted me traffic school and I pleaded guilty. The Judge didn't even mention a single thing about my FTA. My fine was lowered to $198 as well! Driving 300 miles to court and back plus the ability to attend traffic school definitely is much better than $800 increase on my insurance for 3 years.
After I pleaded guilty, the judge suggested that I should check into Toyota recall on sticking accelerator pedals. I heard about it but did not check into until today. The 2009 Toyota Corolla vehicle that I drove that day was definitely on that list.
I was wondering if I have known that, could I have use that as the argument that lead to speeding and hopefully dismissed my ticket? Would I have to go to trial before I can argue that? I have good driving record for the last 3 years.
Anyway, I am satisfied with what I got and did not want to drive another 300 miles for trial.
Re: Chance of Granting Traffic School on 22356(B)
Congratulations on getting a nice deal from the judge!