What If The Judge Doesn’t Show Up To Court?

I went in to the city hall where the court is to take place today and there is hardly anybody there but the clerk. She made it seem like the judge won’t be coming but that she can process my speeding ticket payment. But what if I want to plead my case? Actually, what if I’m counting on the officer not showing up? That’s more of the reason I came. Otherwise I would have just paid it online a long time ago. I don’t really know what my options are here. Can I just plead not guilty to the clerk? On a side note, I think my error was to show up too early to where they have time to notify the officer that I will be showing up. But I wanted to make sure the doors weren’t going to close on me the closer it came to the time, and then I’d be left with the only option of paying online and admitting guilt. But yeah, I’m just worried the clerk will try to have me pay and make it seem like it’s my only option because the judge isn’t there or whatever the reason. What to do in this situation? Can I just say no I don’t want to pay and that I want to plead not guilty? What to do about the judge not showing up? Thanks.

Everytime I've pp pled not guilty, it's been to a clerk that then schedules the date to stand before the m magistrate. Plead not guilty and hire a local attorney if you can. They can't make you plead guilty for any reason.

Did you ask the clerk these questions?

I worked in justice court previously. The way it worked in our court was that the judges only had hearings on even or odd days. (Two judges, assigned cases via first citation number, even went to judge H, odd went to judge A)

In my county you actually had to appear in front of the judge to plead not guilty, and they would then set it for trial.

Were you showing up based on the "failure to appear by....." Date, or were you showing up for an assigned open court general pleadings day?

The clerks can bump out that FTA date, based on court procedure and guidelines. Ours was 7 day bump, if they showed up on or before the correct date.

Now, the clerks will try to make it seem like your only option is to pay it and move on. Don't do it. People don't always connect the "I paid it" with "I pled guilty via paying my fine." Big difference.

Call an attorney in the morning.

Thank you all for your help. So hiring a local attorney was out of the question because there were none willing to take up my case due to the nature of the citation (speeding ticket) and location where they apparently have one of the strictest AntiMasking laws anywhere according to them. In fact, the attorney I spoke to was so discouraging, admitting that he’s not going to go on my behalf because it’s not worth his time or money for a case that he is “sure” won’t win or be amended. He even went further to advising me to just pay the ticket because there was no chance I’d be able to do anything about it, even if I went.

But I decided to go myself anyway. The officer did show up and the judge was there. But fortunately for me, the officer was willing to ask the judge to have my case dismissed, which he did.

Maybe everything the attorneys said was true in a normal occurrence, but I had to try. And thank goodness I did. I’ll definitely be watching my speed now & everything else. And y’all should too. :)

It doesn't hurt to try. The worse that you can get is the same ticket you already had.

Glad it worked out.