Traffic Citations
Question
Guy asked: Is the Deputy required to put the statue on the ticket? I was pulled over and told I was impeding traffic. The ticket says: “SLOW BIKE FAILURE TO RIDE RIGHT CURB”. There is no statute written on the ticket. It appears he is writing the ticket based on the far to the right law while ignoring the exceptions. However, the ticket does not have sufficient information on it for me to prepare a defense.
Answer
The statute that describes traffic citations, s. 316.650 – TrafficCitations, deals with the administrative handling of the form, but not the actual information on the citation, which is likely handled by individual departments training programs.
According to the Traffic Citations Blog by Unger and Kowitt, a firm that specializes in traffic citations, the actual statute must be present on the citation.
“Moving on, the middle of the ticket is where things start to get interesting. It is here the officer will indicate what law you are charged with breaking. There are a series of checkboxes and lines for the officer to fill in details, as well as a spot for the actual Florida statute number.
This area represents the most important part of the ticket, because it is here where due process defenses are born. The state has a burden to inform you of what you’ve done wrong. It is extremely important that you scrutinize this portion of the ticket. We have gotten more tickets dismissed in my office because of mistakes in this area, than any other.
You can read many of the other posts here on this blog where I detail ways to get cases dismissed, but, suffice it to say, if the statute is missing, or incorrect, you should make a motion to the court and ask for a dismissal.”
The full article and the blog can be found here:
We recommend filing a pre-trial motion to dismiss rather than going to traffic court. If you need more info about the issues mentioned, see these posts:
http://flbikelaw.org/2010/01/substandard-width-lanes-updated/
and
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