Traffic Court

-

"I am having an amazing experience, here with one of the most empathetic traffic clerks in the world, thank you!" I kept repeating this in my head even wrote this review to put this in the universe, but nah. clerks are not empathetic, otherwise they'd be flight attendants. Yeah I said it. sue me. I'm already here at the court.

TIMOTHY ANDREWS

We all know that any form of criminal litigation at the hall of Justice is going to be a long drawn out process. There will be a lot of people who are rude and disrespectful, however, deal with it because you are at their mercy for whatever law you are accused to have allegedly committed. Take care of business and leave your sob story and feelings at home.

Richard Bogolub

Parking to get here is a big problem. The line is extremely long if you go the first day after a holiday. I had to shout in a cramped room my questions because of how close everyone was together and because of hearing problems. When you go to ask questions that are not typical such as "where do I file pre trial motions to dismiss a case" or "how do I request discovery information" you have a good chance of encountering clerks that are angry at you for imposing on them such questions. These people messed up and sent me a civil assessment notice saying I did not pay the bail on my citation when I did and I had to go call to fix it. I would strongly recommend keeping all documentation and not losing it. I was misinformed by one of the clerks. I knew I had a right to a speedy trial. When I asked what is the soonest possible date I can have my trial she gave me a date that was many months away. I asked again to confirm. Apparently if you do not say the magic words and specifically state that you assert your right to a speedy trial the clerk will not grant you it. I was treated terribly when I lost my trial by written declaration. I wanted to get the testimony the officer presented in the written trial. The clerk said I needed to speak to police legal on the 5th floor. Police legal said I needed to either speak to the traffic clerks or another department. Eventually I went back to the traffic court clerks and they still told me to go back to police legal. I asked to speak to the supervisor and then when the supervisor showed up I asked to speak to her supervisor and she was not happy. Since I cannot get access to the police officer's declaration for all I know the commissioner stated I was guilty without any evidence by the officer which is in opposition to the legal principle of guilty until proven innocent. I will never no if that is what happened. I now believe the best course of action is to show up to court and ask to speak with the officer in private and respectfully request that you be able to plead down to blocking an intersection which carries no points and a less severe fine. Despite all of this I still give 2 stars as opposed to one because judge Chan was fair enough to dismiss cases whereby the officer's did not prove all the elements of their cases. For those of you interested in getting discovery such as the calibration records on radar guns or traffic surveys I would recommend speaking to police legal on the 5th floor which has no line. You may also be able to get access to an online copy of the Nolo book "fight your ticket & win in California" by calling up a law library and asking how to get online access to that particular book. I learned a lot from it and it has all the discovery forms and motions to dismiss for various causes.

JJ Abernathy

Absolutely horrible! San Francisco is run by terrorists. I contested a ticket, but was not allowed to testify on my own behalf or present my evidence. Even the prosecuting officer agreed that my evidence was relevant to the case, but pro tem judge James Dye did not care. Dye violated my right to due process and my right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. He pronounced me guilty as I was still begging him to hear my case. This man should be disbarred and my case should be overturned. I asked for help in room 145 and a supervisor there said I was welcome to pay more money to file an appeal, but, no, there is no guarantee that my evidence will be inspected then or I will be allowed to testify then either. Do not let this man preside over your case if you have to go. The Judicial Review Commission can accept complaints for regular judges, but since temporary judges like Dye are not actually employed by the court they claim that all I can do is complain to the regular judge who should have heard the case in the first place.