How Can You Get a Case Transfered to Another Court?

If you got a traffic ticket or criminal court case far from home, and are trying to find a way to get it transferred to another county or court, you can stop looking.  There is no way to do it. You have to deal with the case in the county where it happened. If a police officer told you differently, he was flat out wrong.

The reason is this:  in California, criminal and traffic courts are all part of the Superior Courts, which are organized county by county.  Each county has its own Superior Court, and each one does things differently.  There is no common state wide court system where cases or files are transferred between them. Each County Superior Court is independent of the others.

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There is no law that allows a defendant to get a case transferred to another county Superior Court. There is no form to do, there is no person to call to get it done.

And there is a practical reason why it cannot be done - if a trial is required, the witnesses for the trial are in the county where the incident happened.  And witnesses (such as police officers) cannot be required to go to a different county to testify. There is no legal mechanism for getting a police officer to go from San Diego to Shasta County to testify in a traffic court or DUI trial.

There are some very limited exceptions.  For example, if a case gets an extreeme amount of pulicity, like Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial, the defense Attorney can make a motion for a “Change of Venue” based upon the idea that a fair trial cannot happen where all the publicity occurred.  But in reality, those motions almost never get granted.

One other very limited exception is in juvenile cases, a court can send a case for sentencing only to the offender’s home county - but only after the defendant has been convicted. I have seen this happen, but it is super rare.

There is a way to get a court case transferred from a remote courthouse to another within in the same county if it is sent to the county seat.  For example it is possible to get a Barstow courthouse case sent to downtown San Bernardino Courthouse. But that is an Intra-County transfer, not an Inter-county transfer. And it only works if the case is going to the county seat, which is the location of the county’s government.

So unfortunately, if you live in Contra Costa County, but get a traffic ticket in San Diego, you have to deal with it there.  A court appearance may not be mandatory, but if you want a trial, you have to go back to where the incident happened.

The good news?  Penal Code section 977 allows an attorney to go to court for a defendant who does not have to go for most misdemeanor and all traffic court problems.  For example, if you got arrested for a DUI far from home, and just want to plead guilty, you can hire an attorney to do the work for you.

C. Dort

DortLaw.com

Riverside Courts Unable to Become More Efficient with Cross Court Filing

Are you wishing your Riverside traffic ticket case could be transfered or heard in the Riverside Courthouse instead of some podunk trailer courthouse 150 miles out in the middle of the meth lab studded desert?

Well, it was possible for a time. But in July 2009, the court eliminated the program.

Until July, the official court policy in Riverside was that it is possible to take care of any Riverside County Traffic Case in the Riverside Central Courthouse.  Now it is not possible.  Here are the details:

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We were happy to report in January of 2007 that Riverside County Superior Court adopted a policy they called “cross court filing” which allowed a person to take care of a traffic citation in the Riverside Central Courthouse, regardless of where in riverside county the ticket was actually received.

In fact, the announced policy allowed any party to file papers or do business on a case in any courthouse in Riverside, regardless of which Riverside County Courthouse it was assigned to.

Based on the court’s description of “cross court filing” in their press release, the court was finally going to be able to accept traffic court payments, not guilty pleas, and proof of correction on traffic tickets at any courthouse.  The policy promised to do away with the enormous waste of having to travel hundreds of desert miles to do something on a traffic court citation that should only take 15 minutes if the court could efficiently use a computer network.

In fact, the policy specifically approved the filing of most traffic court documents (such as a notice of appeal) by fax to any courthouse in Riverside.

When we first reported the policy change as announced by a press release from the court, we pointed out that it made great sense. It would surly make the traffic court more efficient and more accesible to the hardworking public trying to deal with traffic court cases from Riverside’s rural highways.

Finally! We can take take of rural Riverside cases in Riverside!!! Woo Whooo!!!!

But it was too good to be true.  The court could not get it done.

The few times our traffic court attorneys tried to use the new policy (taking care of a rural case by appearing or filing for a rural case in the Riverside Courthouse) - it did not work.  The court clerks were totally amazed at the request, and could not accept that it should work.

It was disappointing at best - and at worst - it solidified my opinion that Riverside County Superior Court is one of the hardest courts for a criminal defense attorney to work in because of poor organization, decrepit buildings filling apart, and disgusting bathrooms with urine on the floors and rotten ceiling tiles dropping dust on court visitors.

At any rate, it turns out that the cross court filing procedure was eliminated a few weeks ago.  The court no longer even pretends you can take care of any Riverside County Ticket in the Central Courthouse.  They are just not capable of allowing it to happen.

Now, they have returned to the old way of doing business.  Traffic Court defendants in Riverside must again actually go to the courthouse where the case was assigned originally. There is no practical way around the problem any more.

Technically, the law allows a traffic court defendant to request that a traffic citation case be sent to the county seat- the city of Riverside in this county - but in my opinion it’s almost never worth the effort, or the frustration trying to get it done.

Maybe someday they will figure out how to have traffic court records available to the entire court system via a computer network and/or email. I know it’s possible.

For more info on how to solve a traffic court problem from the Riverside Court, click here.

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Riverside County Superior Court adopts Cross Court Filing

It appears the digital age has in fact seeped into the Inland Empire, and the Empire has taken a step beyond. The Riverside County Superior Court (which already provides public on line access to traffic court records) has adopted “Cross Court Filing” for the new year.

WARNING! THE COURT HAS ELIMINATED THE CROSS COURT FILING POLICY AS OF JULY 2009

This policy allows parties in just about any type of case to file a document or set a date in any of the courthouses, regardless of where the case is. The new policy explicitly includes traffic court matters.

Yes, it’s true.  The courts can now communicate with each other.
If you have a citation in a desert courthouse in Riverside County, you can now conduct your business in the central courthouse.
However, experience warns us! It may be a good idea to study the policy before going to court at [Link is now dead, because court eliminated program] and be ready to defend your right to file and conduct business at any courthouse.