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Fight Your Ticket:
Addenda If you haven't read the Links page section
about Fight Your Ticket, please be sure
to do so. These
are
my
additional
index
entries
for and comments about Nolo Press book Fight Your Ticket
and Win in California, by David W.
Brown, 10th - 16th Editions only (I advise you
not to use an edition before the 15th). I
have arranged these materials by subject matter,
with the subjects that are the most useful, or
on most people's minds, coming first.
Briefs
11/14 - 15
Briefs
230 - 236
Briefs
231 - 236
Briefs
249 - 257
Briefs 237 - 244
Best Evidence Rule 232 Discovery 332 Taping a trial - see Recorder or Reporter Change of Venue - see County Seats 16th Edition, July 2015 (the last in the series) - If you have consulted the 16th Edition's index and cannot find what you're looking for, an alternative would be to go to Amazon . com's page for FYT and use Amazon's feature called "Search Inside This Book." Briefs 222 - 229 Best Evidence Rule 217 Taping a trial - see Recorder or Reporter Change of Venue - 177, 184, 185, 332, 363
B:
Traffic
School
and
Second
Offender
Traffic School
Traffic
school:
In
Chapter
9,
at
the end of "Infraction Option # 1," Editions 10
- 13 say, "Note, however, that
by pleading not guilty you give up your right to
attend traffic school and have the charges
dismissed." That's
misleading.
It
makes
it
sound
like there's no chance of getting traffic school
once you've pled not guilty. I agree that
by pleading not guilty you do give up your automatic
right to attend traffic school - the granting of
it becomes a matter of the judge's
discretion. But it's been my observation
that most judges will still grant it if you ask
for it right at the beginning of the trial
session - and some will grant it even after
you've argued your case and have been found
guilty.
2.
Traffic
school:
In
Chapter
9,
at
the end of "Infraction Option # 2," Editions 10
- 15 say, "But
remember,
once
you've
pleaded
not
guilty, you have forfeited your opportunity to
attend traffic school." That
is
flat-out
incorrect.
See
Comment
# 1, above.
Traffic
school: In Chapter 9, at the end of
"Infraction Option # 5," the 10th and 11th
Editions say, "Warning: If
you decide to fight (by pleading not guilty),
you usually forfeit the option of having your
case dismissed in exchange for attending traffic
school." Back in
2003 & 2005 when those editions were
published, "usually" exaggerated the
risk. See Comment # 1, above. Now in
2013, "usually" is pretty accurate, especially
if you went to trial and actively argued your
case, then were found guilty. In the
same location (end of Option # 5), the 10th
and 11th Editions say, "(See
Chapter 10, Section A2e.)" That
should be "Section A3e."
4. Traffic
school: In Chapter 14 (Section B3, or
page 300 in the 12th Ed., 302 in the 13th
Ed., 324 in the 14th Ed., 310 in the 15th
Ed., 292 in the 16th Ed.), all seven
editions (Eds. 10 - 15) say, "You might remind
the judge that the law says a judge can't
routinely apply a policy against traffic school
for those who go to trial and lose. (People
v. Wozniak (1987) 197 Cal.App.3d Supp.
43)" This is
important information to have if you are
going to trial, and I do not understand why
the Wozniak decision is mentioned only one
time in Eds. 10 - 13, and then only "way in
the back." The 14th, 15th and `6th Eds. mention Wozniak an additional time, on pages 138, 134 and 128, respectively, but I disagree with the explanation FYT gives there. I think that the true effect of Wozniak is to stop judges from making a general announcement to everyone in the courtroom, "If you try your case and lose, I won't give you traffic school."
Second
Offender
traffic
school:
In
Chapter
9, in the middle of "Infraction Option # 5,"
Editions 10 - 13 say, "Note:
Traffic school cannot be chosen as an option more
than once in an 18-month period." This was
incomplete information. Editions 10 - 13
fail to mention, anywhere, the availability
(ended July 2011) of Second Offender traffic
school. Chapter 10 (Section A3(e) or page
155 in the 12th & 13th Eds., pages 153 and
149 in the 14th & 15th Eds. and page 143 in
the 16th Ed., respectively), hint at its
existence, though:
"...to prevent people from using this option more than twice over a certain period." (Emphasis added.) But since Chapter 10 doesn't go on to mention Second Offender traffic school by name, a reader who has also read Chapter 9 will just end up wondering - "Can I only get traffic school once, or twice?" (Second Offender traffic school is available only on tickets with violation dates before July 1, 2011.)
Fake
Tickets: Editions 10 - 12 fail to
mention, anywhere, the existence of Fake/Snitch
Tickets,
but the 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th Editions
do, on pages 255, 277, 262 and 246,
respectively. "Even if you do list the true driver, the worst that will usually happen is that he or she will receive what some people call a 'snitch ticket,' without the court's address, which is only a bluff, to which, unfortunately, many people respond and pay fines." Actually,
if
the
first document you receive is a Snitch
Ticket and you reply and give the police the
name of the true driver, that person will
receive a real ticket, to which they
must respond.
D:
Discovery and Evidence 1. Discovery,
who to
serve: In Chapter 10 Brown
begins by instructing his readers to serve
their informal Discovery request on the DA.
I
think
the
DA's
office
is a Black Hole for infraction defendants,
and that serving only the DA is a
big mistake. Brown does mention also
serving the city attorney, but gives it
"second billing," where it might be
overlooked. See my advice about who to
serve, on my Getting
Records/Discovery
page.
Discovery:
In
Chapter 10 all seven editions (Eds. 10
-16) have a 8+ page motion form
entitled "Notice of motion for
preclusion of testimony...."
This is the type of motion you would
file if the city fails to provide the
Discovery you requested. I
have looked up all the case cites
given in the motion, and many
citations bear typographical
errors. Additionally, there are
no case cites newer than 1993,
something that is likely to make a
judge, even one who is not a legal
scholar, suspect that he is not being
presented with the latest and best law
on the subject - even if indeed it is
the latest and best.
Discovery:
In
Chapter
10
all
seven editions (Eds. 10 - 16) have a couple
of motion forms where it says "It is hereby
ordered that plaintiff's motion
for...." That should say
instead: "defendant's motion."
The forms are entitled:
FYT
mentions the Best
Evidence
Rule several times but does not discuss it
at any length, and only the 12th Edition
indexes it.
Defenses:
Neither
the
11th
Edition,
which
was published in 2005, nor the 12th Edition,
which was published in 2007, mentions
Assembly Bill 1022 of 2003 (effective
Jan.
1,
2004)
or
the extensive changes it made to VC 21455.5;
nor did they discuss the potential avenues
of defense opened by those changes. 2. Transferring
the
ticket
to the County Seat (Change of Venue):
In Chap. 17 all seven editions (Eds.
10 - 16) have
a chart which lists which cities are and are
not part of the County Seat. In the
section for LA County, the East LA
courthouse is indicated to be part of the
County Seat, even though it is located in an
unincorporated area and is outside the
boundaries of the City of Los Angeles, and
the Chatsworth courthouse is not indicated
to in the County Seat, even though it is
inside the City of LA.
F:
Sample Briefs/Motions, and Tear-Out Forms
Some
of
the
sample
Briefs/Motions
show
just the DA being served. I
recommend that unless you are 100% sure
that it is the DA prosecuting your case,
you serve both the DA and
the city attorney. 2. All
seven editions contain tear-out copies of
standard legal forms that are now readily
available on the Internet. To avoid
having its readers try to use forms that may
have become out-of-date, FYT should delete
the tear -out forms and simply instruct its
readers to obtain the forms on the 'Net.
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