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Traffic Court

Your Day In Court
Rule 1 (again): Don't plead guilty.

It isn't immoral nor an act of perjury to plead not guilty even if you are guilty. Pleading not guilty is lawyer-lingo for saying you want a trial.

     If you plead not guilty and the officer who wrote you the ticket isn't present, your case might be dismissed. You could walk out free as the proverbial bird.

     If more than one officer is needed to prove the case against you (Officer A clocked you speeding on the radar gun, but Officer B wrote the ticket), both officers must appear in court.

     The downside to an officer failing to appear is that, unless you're willing to plead guilty (and violate Rule 1), the court may postpone your case and you'll have to come back another day. It's entirely up to the judge. Unless you're charged with a more serious traffic violation, many metropolitan-area judges do not postpone cases if an officer fails to appear; judges in the busier jurisdictions recognize the heavy case load and are hesitant to further burden an already strained system by causing the clerk's office to re-set cases due to an officer's absence.

     But unless you're sure the judge is going to grant you what's called probation before judgment if you do plead guilty (see Rule 7), let the case be postponed. Why get points on your driving record when the officer might not appear the next time, either?

     Plus, remember the Request for Speedy Trial you filed with the Clerk? If the case isn't rescheduled until a year or more after you got the ticket, or if you suffer prejudice because of the postponement (a critical witness to your case has moved away), you can ask to have the case dismissed for lack of speedy trial.

     It's also possible (not at all likely, but possible) that the officer isn't prepared even if he is present. He might not have the citation book that contains his copy of your ticket.

     And remember, as with many aspects of the law, nothing is absolute. There are times to break Rule 1. See Rule 8.

Rule 2: About that speedy trial.

     If your court date is more than 9 months after you got the ticket, you haven't asked for any postponements, and you filed your Request for Speedy Trial, ask the court to dismiss your case for a lack of speedy trial. Make this request prior to your entering your plea. Nine months is rarely seen as a violation of speedy trial (one year is a more standard cut-off point), but you risk nothing by asking for a dismissal.

Rule 3: Review your citations carefully.

     You are being prosecuted with the charge as written on the ticket.  What traffic offense does the ticket charge you with committing?  Where and at what time does the ticket claim the offense took place?  Sometimes the ticketing officer will write the wrong charge, time, date, or location on the citation.   If the charge is speeding on March 1, but the actual incident took place on May 1, you're not guilty.  (P.S.: use this defense and you are forever ethically barred from complaining about people who get off on "technicalities," because you just became a charter member of the club.) 

Rule 4: Follow the procedure.

     Traffic cases are informal, but there's still a basic sequence to be followed.

     When your case is called, step to the defense table.  The judge reads the charge and asks how you plead.  You enter your plea. (See Rule 1).

     The State (the State's Attorney or police, depending upon the county) presents its case, usually in the form of witnesses who testify.  At the conclusion of each witnesses' testimony, you, Perry Mason for the moment, are given the opportunity to cross-examine that witness. (More on asking questions to witnesses in Rule 5.) This is not the time for you to tell your side of the story.

     Once the State rests its case, it's your turn.  If you have any witnesses, call them to the stand and ask your questions. You may also testify on your own behalf.  This is the time you tell your side of the story. If you have any exhibits (photographs, diagrams, etc.) to present, explain what they are and ask that they be admitted into evidence.

     The State cross-examines or the judge has the opportunity to question your witnesses (including you, if you testify).

     Once you've questioned your last witness and presented your final exhibit, advise the court that you "rest your case." You won't offer any more evidence, but you're not finished yet. Time now to argue why the evidence supports a not-guilty verdict. Argue the facts. (This is not {yet} when you talk about your spotlessly-clean driving record or what a wonderful humanitarian you are.)

     Remember when arguing the law that traffic offenses, for the most part, are not specific intent crimes. You don't have to intend to be speeding to be guilty of speeding. (It's also not a defense that you were going just as fast as everyone else, your speedometer was broken, you were driving someone else's car, the kids were screaming in the back seat, or if you didn't get your daughter to soccer practice on time she was going to get benched.)

     The judge enters the verdict. Guilty or not guilty.  If you're found guilty, you're given a final opportunity to influence the judge's determination of whether you'll be granted probation before judgment. Now is when you boast about your spotlessly-clean driving record and what a wonderful person you are.

     You would like the judge to change the guilty verdict to "probation before judgment" (PBJ). The next best verdict is to be found guilty of a lesser offense so that you get fewer points. (Generally, point reduction occurs in speeding cases where, for example, finding you guilty of going 9 miles over the limit instead of fifteen reduces the points the MVA will assess from 2 points to 1).

Rule 5: Cross-examination.

     You may not want to cross-examine the state's witnesses at all. If you only pled not guilty in order to make the state prove its case, there may be little to accomplish by asking questions that will only cause an officer to repeat her testimony.

     If your cross-examination isn't going to cause a witness to contradict herself, or otherwise help your case, advise the court you aren't going to question the witness.

     If you do opt to cross-examine a witness, remember it's rarely like on TV. "Officer," you ask, "isn't it true that your radar gun was manufactured by Toys R Us and couldn't register a proper reading if its electronic life depended on it?" To which the officer blushes, gulps, and replies, "Yes, I guess you saw the expose on Nightline last week."

     In real life, it's usually more like this: "Officer, isn't it true that my car was behind a trio of 18-wheelers and it was impossible for you to see my car, much less detect it on your radar gun?" To which the officer replies, "There was some other traffic, but I clearly saw your vehicle and was able to obtain an accurate radar reading."

     Effective questions can address: (1) a witnesses' ability to observe what she claims; (2) whether what a witness says happened is physically possible; and, (3) if any statement a witness made contradicts other statements she made.

Rule 6: Beware your word against the police.

     The traffic light was red, so says Mr. Policeman. No, you insist, it was yellow. If you had a dollar for every time a judge ruled against the police in those cases, you might have a dollar.

     If your case is going to come down to your version v. the police version, bring witnesses to back your side of the story. Even then, it could be tough.

     The case I've always wanted to see: a policeman tickets a bus driver for running a red light. Forgive the political incorrectness here, but it's to create a scenario. The case is tried before a judge who strongly follows the Catholic faith. The bus driver calls his passengers to the stand, all 30 of whom happen to be the nuns he was transporting that day. The nuns all swear the light was yellow. The judge, I'd bet his last Bible, is going to convict the driver of running that red light. Why? Does he think the nuns are lying? Of course not, but... Police, the judge will say, are trained observers, while the nuns were likely distracted from the hue of a traffic signal due to concentrating on maintaining their faith as the world around them goes to collective hell in a handbasket.

Rule 7. How to request PBJ.

PBJ means the conviction is stricken from your record.

     No points will be assessed by the MVA, although there may still be a fine and court costs. PBJ does come with two catches: (1) to accept PBJ you have to waive your right to appeal; and (2) the judge can cause your driving record to be "flagged" for a specific amount of time (most judges use six months to one year) so that if you are convicted of any other traffic offenses within that time, the judge can order you back into court, strike the PBJ and reinstate the guilty verdict.

     Some judges freely grant PBJ; others have odd formulas into which you must fall in order to get PBJ; others rarely grant it at all.

     Two arguments work best when seeking PBJ: (1) a reasonable excuse for you having committed the offense and (2) your driving record.

     Phrase your excuse not as legal justification, but a mitigating circumstance (for example: how whatever it was that caused you to speed to work that morning doesn't usually happen). Keep it short and sweet. And don't say it more than once: excuses don't get better with practice.

     Your true sword at this point is your driving record. Know how long it's been since your last ticket (and be accurate; judges have instant access to MVA records). Driving records are like tile floors: the cleaner they are, the less apt a judge is to soil them with a conviction. Conversely, if violations are already tracked across your record like so much mud, what's another dirty footprint or two?

     If you log a lot of mileage every year, advise the judge. Someone who drives 25,000+ miles on an annual basis and only has a ticket or two in the past 10 years will be seen by some judges as worthy of PBJ given the relatively few (and, hopefully, minor) tickets they've received for the amount of time spent on the road.

Rule 8: Know when to break Rule 1.

     Okay, so you did it. You were clipping along the Beltway at 67 mph, getting passed by everyone else including grandma in her big Buick late for her bridge game, but you were the one the officer pulled over (maybe everyone else was going too fast for the officer to catch, and tailgating truck drivers can be nasty to deal with).

     Plus, the officer is present in court and he has his citation book. Or, maybe, the officer isn't there, but the judge is postponing cases to allow him another chance to show up, and you really don't want to take off any more time from work to go to court.

     If the judge is predictably granting PBJ in cases like yours (similar offenses committed by folks with driving records like yours), you might consider pleading guilty. In this case, the only thing left for you to do is ask for PBJ (see Rule 7).

Rule 9: Behave yourself.

     Wearing appropriate clothes won't win your case, but it shows the judge you have enough respect for the system not to show up in shorts and a t-shirt.

     Unless you're making an objection that has a procedural basis (or the building is on fire), don't interrupt the state's attorney or a witness.

     Don't flail yourself around, or sigh, moan, shake your head, or roll your eyes no matter how much you disagree with what someone else is saying (only the judge is allowed to do this).

     If you think the verdict is unfair, file an appeal.

Rule 10: Appeal.

     By all means, yes, do it.

     If you feel you got a raw deal in District Court...if you had a clean driving record for 5 years and the judge didn't grant PBJ for your rolling through a stop sign at 1:00 a.m. on an empty street, file an appeal.

     In Maryland, criminal cases appealed from the District Court are transferred to the Circuit Court. It is a de novo appeal, which means the case is heard again in the Circuit Court, from start to finish. It is not an appeal on the record. The State must prove its case against you a second time.

     An appeal, however, is not without risk. There is a fee to file an appeal, and additional court costs in Circuit Court. Also, if you're convicted again in Circuit Court, the fine could be higher than that assessed by the District Court judge.

     The reward is you might get that well-deserved PBJ. You might also be acquitted. All of the rules from the District Court apply again in Circuit Court, including your need to file a Request for Speedy Trial (but this time, file it with the Circuit Court clerk and copy the Circuit Court division of the county State's Attorney's Office).

     NOTE: Appeals from the District Court must be filed in writing with the District Court clerk within 30 days of your trial.

Rule 11: Take your lucky rabbit's foot.

     It couldn't hurt.

Up to Rule 1.

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