Legal Question in Traffic Law in Washington
Right to Speedy Trial
When does the Right to Speedy Trial begin? Does it start from the time the ticket was issued?? Here's the deal, ticket was issued 06/04/04. I contest. Case set originally for 8/12/04. I make formal request for discovery and subpeona witnesses and officer. They then reset case to 9/14/04. Which by my calculations is past the 90 days for my right to speedy trial. Please let me know if I am correct in my assessment of the situation. So I can proceed to file a Motion to Dismiss with the court.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Right to Speedy Trial
This is a civil infraction, so the normal speedy trial rules, which deal with criminal offenses, do not apply. The rules say that an infraction must be brought to a hearing with 120 days from the date it is issued. So based on the dates in your question, there probably is no issue regarding an untimely hearing. But if the prosecution does not reply within seven days before the hearing with discovery, you can use Rule 3.2 to get the ticket dismissed. The same is true if the officer fails to appear at the hearing.
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