court date

[gusl]

I just received my court date fordriving with a Pennsylvania driver's license. The incident was on July 8th. Today is the 31st. It took them 22 days. And the court date is October 9th!!!! Just over 3 months total!
I'm leaving the country this Saturday, and I don't plan to be back until January.
I wonder if I can have this dismissed because I have the right to a speedy trial.

Comments

[pbrane.livejournal.com]

"speedy" means sometime before you die of old age, unfortunately... good luck. I just ignore my court dates. :)

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but this happens to be a criminal offense in Massachusetts. Do you think I could get away with that??? (No, I don't think you're a lawyer)

[pbrane.livejournal.com]

it's just a moving violation, right, not an actual criminal misdemeanor? (sp!) You can get a "bench warrant" (where they don't hunt you down, or even come to your place of residence, but keep it on file and can keep you from getting things like licence/registration renewals...) issued for it, and if you get pulled over again, it could be annoying (at worst, a night in jail, which sucks), and maybe worse than just annoying for a non-citizen... I dunno, I'm pretty sure I've got a bench warrant out for me, for driving without proof of insurance and a speeding ticket I never paid, but I don't have the time/energy/money to deal with it right now, so I'm just avoiding getting arrested for something else until I can get it cleared up.

As a non-lawyer, I'd say try to get the date pushed back to Jan/Feb, but if you can't skipping the date won't get you arrested, but it could up the fine a fair bit (by a couple hundred dollars, typically).