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slorrainey · Nov 7, 2007, 11:15 AM

Hi, I need advice on how to write a letter requesting discovery due to a traffic accident. I was the only one involved and court is coming up in 2 weeks. I just need to know how to word it. Any advice?

ScottGem · Nov 7, 2007, 11:19 AM

Discovery?? Of what?? If you were the only one involved then what's to discover? Maybe you need to explain what the court hearing is about.

slorrainey · Nov 7, 2007, 11:25 AM

What sort of evidence they are using against me. I was rounding a blind corner, a cat ran out from the bushes I swerved to the right to miss the creature and hit a phone pole. My car was totaled and I was cited for not controlling my vehicle to avoid a colision. I am contesting the ticket. I just wanted advice on how to request the officers notes on what occurred, etc. Thanks

ScottGem · Nov 7, 2007, 11:32 AM

Go down to the police station and ask for a copy of the report. All the notes and conclusions should be in the police report.

I'm not sure why you are contesting the ticket. You have no proof of the cat and even if you did, you still lost control of the vehicle. If you were cited to losing control, then I don't see where you have a case. However, we do have someone who has done accident investigations contribtuing here. If she doesn't respond to this, I'll ask her to offer her opinion.

slorrainey · Nov 8, 2007, 02:29 PM

Thank you

JudyKayTee · Nov 9, 2007, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by slorrainey

What sort of evidence they are using against me. I was rounding a blind corner, a cat ran out from the bushes I swerved to the right to miss the creature and hit a phone pole. My car was totaled and I was cited for not controling my vehicle to avoid a colision. I am contesting the ticket. I just wanted advice on how to request the officers notes on what occured, etc. Thanks

My suggestion would be to pick up the Police Report (if you haven't already), make the Court appearance, ask to speak to the Assistant DA (in some Courts you have to speak to the ADA before you can appear before the Judge). I don't think the Officer's notes are going to help you - if you hit a phone pole for whatever reason while rounding a blind corner my feeling is that the Judge will rule you were going too fast for conditions, were unable to control your vehicle and the ticket will stick. The Court might routinely plead it down to some other type of non-moving violation but that depends on where you live.

s_cianci · Nov 9, 2007, 09:14 AM

You can always go to court and contest the ticket and hope that the officer who issued it doesn't appear to testify against you. You'll probably have to notify the court in advance of your intention to do this. Since there was nobody else involved and really doesn't involved any substantial damage to anything besides your own car (I'm assuming), it's altogether possible that the officer issuing the ticket isn't going to want to take the time to appear in court over it. I'd also like to know if the officer actually witnessed you hitting the pole. Did you admit to it?

JudyKayTee · Nov 9, 2007, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by s_cianci

You can always go to court and contest the ticket and hope that the officer who issued it doesn't appear to testify against you. You'll probably have to notify the court in advance of your intention to do this. Since there was nobody else involved and really doesn't involved any substantial damage to anything besides your own car (I'm assuming), it's altogether possible that the officer issuing the ticket isn't going to want to take the time to appear in court over it. I'd also like to know if the officer actually witnessed you hitting the pole. Did you admit to it?

It would appear to me that hitting the pole is obvious without the accident being witnessed and without an admission of guilt. Was there damage to the pole? Sounds like a stupid question but you would be responsible for property damage.

Don't know about your jurisdiction - often if you intend to protest the ticket you appear the first time, speak to the ADA, he schedules all cases involving the Officer for the same second appearance date. Officer simply spends the evening in Court.

Just a side note - I'm an investigator for Attorneys (not insurance companies) and we call accidents such as this "phantom" accidents because the other party/causative party is not witnessed - same when a person alleges a car cut them off and caused the accident. I see a fair number of these accidents involving deer in the roadway. Most tickets stick for failure to control the vehicle.