Contested Hearings

If a person chooses to contest an infraction, the court may first set a preliminary hearing. The prosecutor usually does not attend these hearings. The person scheduled for a pretrial conference may waive the conference in some situations. If a person attends the pretrial conference hearing, he or she may have the option to mitigate or request a deferral at that time.

Jurisdictions vary on their procedures. If you appear at the pretrial conference at court and make the demand for contested hearing, some jurisdictions may put up some resistance to mitigation or deferral at the later contested hearing. The reason is the court does not much care for setting multiple hearings on one case. Occasionally a prosecutor may not oppose mitigation or deferral at a contested hearing, and this may depend upon the nature of the alleged traffic infraction, and whether the subpoenaed officer or civilian witnesses are opposed to such resolution having trekked to court from their home or work place. Even so, the judge may refuse to accept said disposition at this stage.

Prosecutors go about preparing their prosecution in a number of ways. They typically will not subpoena the police officer to the hearing. Most often they choose to rely on the infraction ticket the officer filed with the court, together with statements and other information contained therein. If an officer was not present at the time a traffic collision occurred and therefore did not personally observe what the cited motorist actually did, the prosecutor may need to subpoena one or more civilian eyewitnesses to prove the case. Unfortunately, the prosecutor will not generally give notice who they have subpoenaed for court, so it is incumbent on the cited person's attorney to serve subpoenas on officers or civilians when appropriate.

Infraction hearings are fast-paced and high volume enterprises for the court, prosecution, and defense attorneys. The hearings tend to be very technical, since the court rules, laws of evidence, and other procedures are familiar to someone who makes a living by attending these affairs.