Who may legally deliver traffic summons

[ernstn]

I would appreciate if somebody could help me with this. Who can legally serve a summons to appear in court for a traffic offense? Is outsourcing to private firms legal?

Thanx guys!

[AcidRaZor]

according to the law of south africa chapter 11 paragraph 2 page 239 i have no ****ing idea....

next question

[stoke]

If you sign for the summons, then anybody can deliver it, if you refuse to sign, some kind of obstruction of justice thing can be thrown at you.
Otherwise, sherrif of the court can decide that you are you and hand it over to you.

[AcidRaZor]

btw, be on the look out for anyone just signing the summons FOR you. It happend to my aunt and their was a warrant of arrest taken out against her.

moral of the story... don't speed mkay? (at least not on places you know there to be stationary cameras and police some time)

[TheflyOfCapeTown]

you quite the funny dude tonight, my wife canned herself at your first reply to this thread

[pookfuzz]

Generally a summons must be delivered to you, usually be a sherif of the court ( the sherifs are usually a private company, so yes these things are outsourced ).

A summons can also be given to someone who is willing to accept it on your behalf or to someone living at the same residence as youself. It can also be delivered to your work premises.

If the above fails, they can just tack thing thing onto your door, or put it up on a noticeboard outside the courthouse (its in a public place so how could you not have seen it!), or even email the summons to you (yes, as idiotic as this sounds it has been done before).

Generally the sherifs will not deliver the summons unless they can give it to you personally or to someone willing to accept it on your behalf or have become desperate, the reason for this is that it is considered "Bad service", and they are getting paid to give good service to the courts. Additionally most summons have a section that needs to be filled out and returned to the court.

Not pitching up in court is not such a smart move, since a default judgement will usually be awarded to the other side. Auto loose option with no option to defend youself.

Depending on the type of traffic offense - you may find delaying getting the summons could avoid court, for example accident type cases cannot be brought to court more than 3 years from the date they occured. This seems to be a common tactic insurance companies like to pull when an accident has no one to blame, 2 weeks before the "expiry date" you get a summons to court, and of course its too late to bring a counter case against them, they have nothing to loose since you can't bring claims against them all you can do is defend youself.

If you have insurance you should give them a call and see what services they offer, many have lawyers you can consult about traffic related stuff as part of the package. In the end you really do want professional advice, listening to forums may give you a better idea of possible options, but only a trained lawyer who is versed in the current law will be able give you the facts.

If the offense is something trivial like a speeding ticket or something you may as well just go pay the fine or whatever, the hassle of courts and lawyers is so not worth it.

[AcidRaZor]

you quite the funny dude tonight, my wife canned herself at your first reply to this thread

im doing absolutely everything except my work

[AcidRaZor]

Generally a summons must be delivered to you, usually be a sherif of the court ( the sherifs are usually a private company, so yes these things are outsourced ).

A summons can also be given to someone who is willing to accept it on your behalf or to someone living at the same residence as youself. It can also be delivered to your work premises.

If the above fails, they can just tack thing thing onto your door, or put it up on a noticeboard outside the courthouse (its in a public place so how could you not have seen it!), or even email the summons to you (yes, as idiotic as this sounds it has been done before).

Generally the sherifs will not deliver the summons unless they can give it to you personally or to someone willing to accept it on your behalf or have become desperate, the reason for this is that it is considered "Bad service", and they are getting paid to give good service to the courts. Additionally most summons have a section that needs to be filled out and returned to the court.

Not pitching up in court is not such a smart move, since a default judgement will usually be awarded to the other side. Auto loose option with no option to defend youself.

Depending on the type of traffic offense - you may find delaying getting the summons could avoid court, for example accident type cases cannot be brought to court more than 3 years from the date they occured. This seems to be a common tactic insurance companies like to pull when an accident has no one to blame, 2 weeks before the "expiry date" you get a summons to court, and of course its too late to bring a counter case against them, they have nothing to loose since you can't bring claims against them all you can do is defend youself.

If you have insurance you should give them a call and see what services they offer, many have lawyers you can consult about traffic related stuff as part of the package. In the end you really do want professional advice, listening to forums may give you a better idea of possible options, but only a trained lawyer who is versed in the current law will be able give you the facts.

If the offense is something trivial like a speeding ticket or something you may as well just go pay the fine or whatever, the hassle of courts and lawyers is so not worth it.

So I can get my insurance company to sue the son of a b1tch who smashed into my car almost 3 years ago?

I wanna **** up his relationship with his girlfriend and cause him to ****ing almost lose his job and friends because what he did to me.........

[Scott]

lol...noone the savage monster po*n type thing.

[Scott]

It was 3 years ago..let it pass

[pookfuzz]

Noone,

Depending on who the insurance companies are you may find they won't go to court this would be especially true if the person you wish such bad things for is using the same insurance company.

Taking stuff to court costs money, insurance companies hate parting with money hence they would rather settle payouts between each other without court costs. In the end it works out cheaper for them since the odds of having to make a payout are about the same as the other insurance having to make a payout, plus keeping the clients out of court keeps the clients alot happier.

Of course if you push them enough they will be willing to contest things in court, but that won't ruin the persons life, all it means is that you might get back your excess and spend a day or two in court.

If however the other person did not have insurance, then you can cause quite abit of unhappiness, without insurance they would be personally liable for the repair/replacement costs of your vehicle and any medical expenses. Assuming they were at fault and it wasent actually you who rammed them.

Most of the time, unless there is clear evidence that the other person was at fault or was negligent, the judge will not make a decision. So you get to spend a few days in court for nothing, another reason why these things seldom get to court.

The court happy ones are the companies with car fleets for employees, they couldent care that the employee has to sit in courts all day and since the insurance company is going to foot the legal bills they are keen to take things to court over the smallest things on the odd chance they might win. These are the guys that will bomb you with a 2 weeks to go summons.

I would say go with skuzzy's advice.

[AcidRaZor]

still have the muther****ers number plate...

Was driving happily along after visiting my girl, listening to Jenny on the block, cruising at 50km/h (was 1am in the morning, no rush, and it was long weekend. 14th of December 2002)

I first heard the screech of his tires, then I saw him... white toyota corolla 1995 model, his head lights were already broken because he ****ed into a barrier before he hit me (says the guys who were at the corner at the time, couldn't see it myself because it was just around the corner, baie slap draai) He then swirved out of my lane back into his own, saw he was going to hit the curb, heard another screech and saw he is trying to avoid the curb by sharply turning to his right again, this time his car started sliding. I was doing 55km/h now, putting foot with the 1.4 I had so that perhaps he might miss me. Bottle coke between my legs as I struggled to put the cap back on and brace for impact, he was going really fast and hit me at about 70km/h + at least right on the side (thank g0d for side impact bars) car spun 180degrees, rear right axel tore off, we ended up facing each other, I looked up to the horror of the guys who were driving behind me. They got out of the car, a girl and (assumed) boyfriend was walking towards my car while their friend was walking towards the dude who crashed into me "are you ****ing mad?!" I remember him yelling.

I couldn't get out the drivers side so I slid over to the passenger side, put on my hazards (although I swear it came on by themselves) I always drive without shoes and because I was too lazy to take off my socks it was a bit soggy because I was out with my girl the whole evening planning to come back early saturday to go out again.

"omg he's bleeding he's bleeding" the girl almost fainted and I laughed and said, "chill, I'm fine, my socks just wet... and it's not piss... haha" "are you okay" the dude said... and as he said that the guy reversed and drove off....

****ing drunk driver ruined my life almost... well... let's just say I moved up to JHB to start living it up. I was motivated. my first real girlfriend, both madly in love. (moved up november 2002) I lost her, travel was a b1tch. I lost around 23k. Got a warning that if I didn't make proper arrangements for travel i'd get fired. Because it was holidays it took almost 3 months to finish my car. Plus it was brand new so parts had to be "made available"

it all declined from there... and now i am truely no one

erf... im seriously not in the mood to work... might as well go to sleep... ffs

[AcidRaZor]

on the bright side, i upped my working hours from 80 to 160 to 290 to 370 in quite a short period. had a salary increase of almost 75%

im tired of this bull****. i want people to ****ing suffer the wrath i can fully bring down on them if i so wish... the morning while walking to the police station from the hospital, I told the cops I want his details.... they gave me his id number, residence and name... he was 20 at the time. I still have it...

people should realise there are consequences to what they do.... i want to ruin his life and I won't even feel guilty about it... hell, I won't feel guilty about many things anymore

[pookfuzz]

With multiple witnesses, the level of damage to your vehicle and the other drivers behavour I am surprised your insurance company did not decide to pursue it to court.

Regardless, its not worth going after them.

Hey, if you able to afford ADSL your life can't be that bad...

[AcidRaZor]

atm you'd be suprised