We Find Technical Flaws

There are a variety of issues for a defendant to keep an eye out for in advance of a case. The illustration below is merely one of a host of potential issues a good attorney will look for on the front of the ticket, beginning with the top right hand corner.

Under IRLJ 2.2(d), the police officer must file the infraction ticket with the court within 5 days after the officer issues the ticket, excluding weekends and holidays. The court generally stamps a number in the upper right corner of the ticket right beneath the preprinted ticket number to indicate when it was filed with the court. The first two digits are the year of filing, the next three digits are the day the ticket was filed based on the Julian calendar. Thus, the number 062840510 would mean the officer filed the ticket with the court on October 11, 2006. The number 120012544 would mean the officer filed the ticket on January 1, 2012.

Tickets do not need to be filed within five days of the actual date of the alleged infraction. They must be filed within five days of the date the police officer issues the ticket, which can be days after a traffic collision, for example. Also, the day the alleged infraction was committed is not counted as part of the five days, so the five days are counted beginning the day after the ticket was issued.

Even if there is a violation of IRLJ 2.2(d) on its' face, the prosecution is allowed to articulate any good cause as to why the officer filed the ticket late. If the police officer does not write down the date he issued the ticket, so it is unclear if they filed it within 5 days of issuance, the prosecutor will argue that under IRLJ 3.1(d) the defendant must demonstrate an unfair prejudicial effect to their ability to defend against the ticket.

So, that in a nutshell is one small "technical defect' in the ticket an experienced traffic attorney will look for. There are many, many, more defects our experienced eyes may spot that relate to other court rules. We will not go into them here. That would involve many pages, and, it would not begin to discuss the other challenges available under the governing statutes, court rules, rules of evidence, or other criteria.

Do not delude yourself in believing you can manage a good defense on your own. Court rules change. Evidence rules change. Ordinances and statutes are constantly changing, and legal opinions issued by higher courts can be handed down on any given week.