Dupage County Traffic Court (Naperville: insurance, law, assess)

[Joel67]

Hello,

I am looking for info from anyone who may be familiar with traffic court in Dupage Co.

I was involved in a minor accident in Naperville where I was at fault. I am not required to attend court for this matter, but I had intended to attend as I'm hopeful that the officer and the other party does not show up and the ticket is dismissed (no one was injured, minimal damage to vehicle).

Q1: is the above assumption of the process correct?

Q2: I am being asked to go out of town for business on my court date. I'm inside of the window where I can no longer do anything online, so my options are to not take business trip and go to court, or go to court and see what court decides in my absence.

Does anyone know for certain what happens when someone does not appear in traffic court for this type of accident? I've read that a new court date is granted, but I've also read that in some cases the judge can just convict. For this type of traffic violation, I am told that warrants are not issued.

Appreciate your insights!

[chet everett]

The assumption that a police officer will not show up in court in DuPage Co is NOT a likely scenario -- all law enforcement officers working for municipalities or official agencies in DuPage County are compensated for their time spent in court and it is extremely rare that any DuPage County prosecutor would not have the needed personnel to testify for ANY ticket issued.

If your presence is NOT REQUIRED that simply means that you the offense is such that it would not, by itself, carry jail time or license suspension penalties. There likely are STILL consequences such as increased insurance cost, potential penalty from third party (I understand Uber and Lyft will not allow folks with more than a certain number of moving violations to be part of their system...) and even possibility of suspension of license IF you have other violations that push you over the state limit...

Where a person who has any traffic ticket in Illinois does not show up the standard procedure if for a "guilty" finding to be entered and fines assessed. Failure to pay fines will generally not result in the issuance of a warrant though you may be assessed additional penalties for late payment and renewal of any vehicle related related registration may be blocked until all fines and penalties are paid.

All this should have been spelled out in the little brochure that is generally handed out along with your ticket.

[Joel67]

Thanks Chet, I've decided I'm going to go to court.

As a follow up to your question about the police officer attending the court date ... if the person I hit does not come to court but the police officer does, will the judge dismiss the case, or will I still need to state a plea and ask for supervision?

I'm not sure if in these cases the ticket is summararily dismissed or if it still proceeds as if the other party was there and it becomes my word against the police officers? I would not lie to the judge to say things went differently than they did, but I'd consider it a good outcome if they dismissed it due to the other party not attending.

[chet everett]

There are several situations where a police officer will write a ticket following an incident and it won't go further -- things like "not allowing a safe stopping distance / following too closely" or "failure to yield" are typically done on the quick description of the drivers on the scene. If the police officer did not witness the actual collision and the other party does not testify the prosecutor can't really build a case. OTOH if the situation was a very clear case of illegal lane usage, with the collision happening head-on after you've traveled across several lanes of traffic the prosecutor can build a case that any judge and most juries would agree with merely by showing a picture that the police officer snapped of your vehicle smack on top the other one with both in a ditch...

Depending on the circumstance it is generally a good idea to to go to court and hope for the best -- in situations where the prosecutor's discretion is such that they assume you are generally a decent driver that maybe did follow too closely you can probably ask for court supervision if not an outright dismissal.