They’re not bad people – in fact I think a lot of them are -were-are ? – pretty cool. So Traffic Court judges can do anything they want. With no prosecutor there…or a cop to tell the judge what happened…and an ordinary citizen representing themselves – the judge is free to do whatever he or she pleases with no fear of any backlash or repercussions. And then the judge will find them guilty, not guilty, or basically dispose of the case in any other way they please. If you can’t “work it out” with the officer, who knows nothing about your case, you will wait for the judge to come out and he will ask the defendant their version of what happened. This person calls everyone up one by one and ask you “what do you wanna do?”. Drag racing tickets, reckless driving tickets, driving while suspended tickets, being the most common. There IS one police “liaison” officer standing at the front of the room armed with all the tickets for everyone in the room. When one actually finds the courtroom they need to be in so they may defend their traffic ticket(s) they will find that the cop that gave him the ticket is nowhere to be found nor is there any kind of prosecutor in sight either. The first thing the uninitiated notices is how grimy and rundown the facilty is and, now that it has been refashioned with metal detectors, more cashiers, and some new walls and hallways – what an absolute nightmare it is to navigate through. When a cop gives a person a ticket, that ticket calls for an appearance at the famous address of 800 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Philadelphia Traffic Court. That said, for those that are unfamiliar with how this unique animal of american jurisprudence works, let me lay it out for you. I have been a PA Drivers License Lawyer for over twenty years and have had the pleasure of going to Philly Traffic Court probably almost a thousand times. Personally, what surprises me is not the fact that these judges are in trouble for allegedly “fixing” cases, but that it took so long for someone to say anything. Similarly, if a CP case has a corresponding MC case, the MC case docket number will most often be set forth as the "cross court docket number" on the CP case web docket sheet.Anyone who is surprised about all the indictments handed down this week for a gaggle of Philadelphia Traffic Court Judges doesn’t know much about Philadelphia Traffic Court. Specifically, if a MC case has a corresponding CP case, the CP case docket number will most often be set forth as the "cross court docket number" on the web docket sheet for the MC. To determine if a MC case has a related CP case (or vice versa), please review the "cross court docket number" field appearing on the web docket sheet (see page one in the case information section). Thus, some cases will have both a MC and CP docket number that concern the same incident or offenses. Therefore, some cases, such as those involving felony offenses, will initially be filed in MC but will be adjudicated in the CP. In Philadelphia County, MC has initial jurisdiction in processing every criminal arrest in Philadelphia and conducts misdemeanor trials and preliminary hearings for all felony cases. When a search of cases from Philadelphia County is conducted using "other criteria", the search results will include all applicable Philadelphia Municipal Court (MC) and Court of Common Pleas (CP) cases.
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