Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

Re: Civil Remedy for False Arrest

A traffic citation is not normally an arrest. (It can become an arrest, but this seldom happens and you would probably know if it did!) Even if it were an arrest, you could probably only win in a subsequent action if you could prove an intent to harass you or some other sort of bad-faith conduct.

Police departments and traffic officers aren't expected to be right 100% of the time, and they are not penalized for citations that don't hold up in court.

Imagine what would happen if suits like the one you propose could be won -- police would be reluctant to make an arrest if they thought they could be sued later, and departments would have to spend money on damages instead of on police salaries and equipment.

All in all, the system we have is reasonably fair. If your citation was a mistake -- or a correct citation which the judge did not find adequately proven -- then you just have to deal with it.

Re: Civil Remedy for False Arrest

Attorney Hoffman's reply is right on the money, as far as the policy reasons for disallowing such suits. As for the actual elements of such a claim, you would be required to prove that the officer had NO probable cause for the "arrest," in order to demonstrate it was solely for purposes of (as said by Mr. Hoffman) harassment. You would then have to go even further to show bad faith conduct or malice by the officer. Note that just because the finding was in your favor does not mean the arrest was unjustified or "false." It is an unfortunate fact of living in the modern world that we all have to occasionally face such annoying aggravations.