Visitor to LA - Notice to Appear

[delsol25]

California State

I'm Canadian living in Quebec
During my visit last week, the rental car compagny give me a powerfull G35.
Turning to go at my hotel, the back of this car slip and the cop pull me

I receive a Notice to Appear in LA.
Two infraction written on the Notice :
23109 c Abrupt Accel causing tires to skid Misdemeanor
16078 a No Ins. in poss Infraction

What kind of sentence i should expect for the tire to skid ?
I'm not use to drive rear traction car. This car was easy to loose traction.

For the No Inssurance in possesion, Rental car compagny never give ins. paper, Can i just bring inssurance information when i will appear in court ?

Do i really need to flight from Quebec to LA to appear in court ?

I need some advice...
Thank

 

[mafioso]

There are a number of ways to handle this......I would differ you to Cdwjava on this forum. He masters a lot especially about CA laws, police and court practices. Send him a private message to respond to your post.

 

[CdwJava]

CVC 23109 is also known as "exhibition of speed" and the lack of insurance is actually CVC 16028(a). 23109 can be filed as a misdemeanor, but usually is filed as an infraction. 16028(a) is an infraction and can usually be corrected by providing proof of the correction (insurance) to the court.

I would suggest one of two ways - (1) Hire an attorney in the area of the violation to handle the matter and appear on your behalf. (2) Pay the fines up front (could be expensive, though.)

I suspect the 23109 will be filed as an infraction, so there should be no reason you have to physically appear.

If you are a gambler and never want to come to the US again, you can always blow it off and let it go ... though your driving status would be revoked in CA and a warrant for your arrest would likely issue.

You may want to contact the court and make sure they have your correct address in Canada to send your court info to. It is very possible that the officer fouled it up when writing the ticket (you folks format addresses differently than we do), so you might want to call and confirm the address they have and to also find out about your options. Give it at least two or three weeks from the cite date so that it can be processed.

Here is a link to LA Traffic Court info:

http://www.lasuperiorcourt.org/Traffic/index.asp?RT=EX

- Carl

 

[delsol25]

Thank for your reply,

I need to go back every month to US. This is very important for my job.

What about if i collect all proper paperwork to show a perfect driving license status in Canada and proove of this car was rent less then 24 hours before, Picture of the exact location, Flight ticket charge to appear in court in LA (about 1 000$)....Etc (Please tell me if i forget something)

Try to present all paper to the judge and ask to reduce the charge.

What do you think about this approach ?

 

[CdwJava]

There is little leeway given to the judges to reduce a charge like this. The DA might be willing to, but I doubt LA County has a DA assigned regularly to trafic matters.

Your best course of action might be to hire a local attorney to handle this for you.

- Carl

 

[delsol25]

Can you tell me how much a local person may change for something like this ?

 

[CdwJava]

I can only guess, but I suspect it will cost at least $500 to handle a traffic matter.

- Carl