Legal Question in Traffic Law in Florida

Re: Officer written error on Traffic Citation?

Hello:

Your question is a tough one. Also, since I practice in Jax., I am not familiar with Orlando judges' tendencies in regard to traffic tickets.

I handle a lot of tickets of all types up here. I generally advise clients NOT to go to trial on a traffic cit. This is mainly because I advise them to enter pleas of No Contest and ask the court to WITHHOLD ADJUDICATION OF GUILT. This means--not a conviction---No Points. The court will usually order the court costs (usually the same amount of the ticket). Sometimes, if my client has a bad record, the Court will increase the court costs or order driving school, or will not withhold adjudication of guilt.

In choosing the above disposition, my client gets the matter ovcer with; he/she doesn't have to go to court and pays us a lot less than if I was going to have a trial on the ticket. By getting a withhold, it's like it didn't happen, except, my client had to pay a couple of hundred dollars total. And you never know, going in to a trial, what the outcome will be.

As to whether you can win because he made an error on the ticket, I can't say for sure. It may be such a minor error that the court disregards it. This would be a gamble for you.

'Hope this helps, Tom

Rosenblum.