Q: I got a ticket in Ford County Ill. How long does a officer have to submit the citation until it becomes void?

A: Hello Asker,

In general, I would place little hope in a void citation based upon delay. Technically, Illinois Supreme Court rule 552 requires it to be submitted within 48 hours after it is written as in it must be mailed or sent to the them within 48 hours. When it arrives is not specified. With that said, some police departments are given a great deal of leniency in this delay and the courts don't take notice. In the case of the Illinois State Police, delays up to a few weeks to submit tickets are not unusual and rarely does it give reason to have a case thrown out.

Aside from that, Rule 504 also provides that the ticket must set a court date within 14-60 days of the issuance of the ticket. This too however has not been a basis to dismiss a ticket alone in some cases. In my research, I found that the courts view these as non-serious errors unless you can prove that the failure to abide by these rules prejudiced you in some way. For example, if you had a court date that was later than the rules allowed and a witness died or otherwise was incapable of providing testimony that they might have been able to provide but for the delay in receiving a court date.

You can attempt to raise these issues if you want but they aren't reasons that the court MUST throw out a ticket though they might depending on how much they care. I don't practice in Ford County so I can't say how receptive they are to these arguments or how much they expect their officers to follow these rules.

I hope this helps answers your question and let us know if you have any additional questions!

Sincerely,

Jason A. Wilkins

Traffic Attorney

(630) 445-2293