Does Fairfax County Court Issue a "Certificate of Attendance" for court appearances? (attorneys)

[Ed From Falls Church]

New thread because I could not find an answer to this.

Received a subpoena to testify as a state witness against a driver who was charged with reckless driving. No problem with any of that since I dialed 911 and gave statement to the police at the scene of the accident. My issue is that my (federal government) human resources folks told me that I'll need a certificate of attendance to claim "Court Leave." Sounds reasonable except that I was a witness about 10 years ago and could not get such a document although I was able to get one for jury duty about five years ago. When I searched the FFX County Court web site I couldn't find any reference about this except forjury duty. Thoughts?

[mdcrim]

Call the Fairfax Commonwealth Attorneys Office. They should be able to answer your question, and you're their witness.

[patriot201]

I was given a certificate of attendance when I was a witness for the Commonwealth's Attorney. I didn't even ask for it; it was just given to me.

[Ed From Falls Church]

The answer is: you have to ask. Since I was a witness for the state, I asked the prosecutor and she arranged for a memo to be prepared. The court's clerical people were puzzled as they thought the subpoena was sufficient. I was fortunate in that the prosecutor stayed a few minutes and ensured that it was done; she also thanked me repeatedly for showing up, thereby obtaining a conviction

Other observations from spending the day in traffic court.

1. Lot of non-English speaking defendants. Is there a general disregard for traffic laws in foreign countries, are we failing to properly train and test foreigners for VA licensing, or is a combination of both? Or is it something else?

2. The judge was interested in the welfare of the defendants, but she couldn’t overcome the stupidity and stubbornness of some people. As a result some folks refused to stop running their mouths even after the judge advised them to get an attorney. When they were done, she declared them guilty, imposed a jail sentence and had them taken away in handcuffs. After a couple of those, the other hundred or so folks in the court room (yup, it was packed) realized they better listen tothe judge.

3. The prosecuting police officer failed to appear for about 20% of the contested tickets. NOT ONE TICKET WAS DISMISSED BY THE JUDGE BECAUSE THE POLICE OFFICER FAILED TO SHOW UP. Every ticket was simply rescheduled for a later hearing. One person grumbled about not having the ticket dismissed because the officer didn’t show, the judge ignored the comments and the assembly line continued as she called for the next defendant.