Can anyone point me in the right direction to the WA State law that says your court trial for a traffic ticket must be within 90 days of the infraction otherwise you can have it thrown out of the court because of one's right to a "speedy trial", or something to that effect? I know it exists in Oregon... Thanks in advance!
I know there's one for the officer having to file the ticket within 48 hours of the ticket being issued or you can motion for it to get dropped. Problem is that it kinda depends on your area, seattle courts it seems easier to get a ticket dropped than spokane courts because seattle uses actual judges where as spokane uses commissioners who get paid based on the tickets that are found committed. T
Search on the link below. You should be able to find it if it's there. http://http://www1.leg.wa.gov/LawsAndAgencyRules
I think this is called the "statute of limitations" - trying use that in your search. And I think the filing period is now 72 hours - don't quote me on that though.
the 90 days thing is specified in the IRLJ. http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rule...nicipal&set=munedm&ruleid=municipalmunedm2.6a
Actually, they have full 5 business days to file your ticket now. You can thank our "lovely" representatives in Olympia who approved the change in 2006. Now the officer needs to be extremely lazy to miss the 5 business day filing dealine. http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.display&group=clj&set=IRLJ&ruleid=cljirlj2.2
the 90 day rule is a myth of epic proportions ... they say it applies to most every law but they mean the serious ones, like capitol crimes, they can do what ever they want pretty much with traffic infractios, they are not real crimes!
no truth in that statement regarding spokane courts and how commissioners are paid - if you work with the assigned prosecutor it never need go to court unless you push it due to not being able to settle the matter which is pretty unusual unless it's neg driving or dui or the like. Trust me I know - I've never had one get to the commissioners and I fight them all. And there is no way a judge or commissioner would be paid based on the amount or number of tickets handled in his or her court. Steve
This "Court Rules" defines the requirements concerning your rights to contested and mitigation hearings. http://www.courts.wa.gov/court_rules/?fa=court_rules.display&group=clj&set=IRLJ&ruleid=cljirlj2.6
Thanks for the replies everyone. The link below has a lot of useful info. Turns out, it's 120 days, not 90 here in WA. But the kicker is, if you want to use that defense, you have to notify the court within 10 days of when your trial date was mailed to you. (So they have time to reschedule it to within the guidelines.) :angry7:
