Is anyone familiar with the court and traffic violations here?

[awesomeness43]

I received a unsafe lane change a while back. Set up a court date. As i was heading to court, i got in an accident and couldn't make it. Due to me missing court, i received a failure to appear. I went to court, took care of bail and did trial by written declaration.

 

The court attendant told me that usually, my reason would not have them drop the fta fine of 300 (civil assessment). I had a copy of the collision report and spoke to the officer at the accident, who does remember me telling him i needed to go to court at the time of the accident and said that the report should be adequate. The clerk said that if i was not incarcerated, or hospitalized i would more than likely have to pay the fine if my case was not dropped.

 

Does anyone know how that usually works and the statistics of a trial by written declaration? Thanks..

[Mickyfricky]

well, don't mean to be mean, but maybe practice driving again, maybe go back to driving school?

[porter218]

If the $300 was bail for the FTA then you should get it back once your case is finished or they will apply it to your court costs.

[ferraridave]

As far as TBD, the statistics are pretty good, especially if u really take a long time in getting the work done (but still send it in on time). I would say, usually defendants win 60-70% of the time, since cops dont get paid for TBD as they do for going into court, so most wont take the time to do it (why would they? they dont have a personal stake in it). even if u do lose however, u can still ask for a Trial de Novio (new trial). by this time the cop will have totally forgotten what happened and you will have caught him with his pants down!