Legal Question in Traffic Law in Illinois

Re: Trial By Declaration

I have not personally done or heard of a "trial by declaration" in the state of Illinois. I did a little preliminary research and it appears to be something available at least in California as a means of dealing with traffic tickets. In my experience in Illinois, in order to have a trial, it is necessary to either a) request a court date and set the case for trial or b) appear in court at the scheduled time and request a trial. In either case, you would be pleading "not guilty" to the charges and a trial date would be established. In some jurisdictions, the police officer is present at the first court date and requesting a trial will result in the case being passed for trial later that day. In other jurisdictions, the officer is not required to appear on the first court date and will only be notified to appear if the case is set for trial.

The trial by declaration in California appears to be a way to try and win traffic ticket cases where the officer fails to submit the required paperwork. The only analogy that I can think of in Illinois would be if you requested a trial and the officer failed to appear in court. In many instances where an officer fails to appear to court to testify for a traffic ticket, the State will dismiss the case, however there are exceptions, for example where the officer's absence is due to scheduled leave time or military deployment.

In any event, if you are considering requesting a trial for any type of criminal or traffic matter, you should also consider having the representation of a competant attorney to assist you in the preparation and execution of the trial.