fined while on the phone

benway

I love how sanctimonious people are getting on this thread.

The Gardaí are under an obligation to name the correct party to the summons - a clerical error should be corrected, if necessary by re-issuing the summons. It won't make the whole thing go away, but you must be correctly named in proceedings against you. The judge would have jurisdiction to make this amendment on the return date, either. This kind of sloppiness is just typical, and I fail to see why people are so keen to excuse/overlook it.

Don't want to comment much further, but as an aside, I've regularly had motions struck out for incorrectly naming respondents on the civil side, spelling errors and such - it's a basic thing, you can't get Orders against someone who isn't named in your grounding documentation. Granted, you wouldn't usually get proceedings struck out on that basis.

Kosseegan

Relying on defects in a summons to avoid conviction is extremely tricky. A lot of skill is needed and there are risks. Turn up for the hearing and most likely the defect in the summons is cured. Do not turn up and be convicted in your absence and go through the hassle of trying to get a set- aside. Judges in the District Court are notoruiously unpredictable. Some will throw out a summons on the drop of a hat, others will amend until kingdom come.

Farmer Pudsey

I recall reading a case in a newspaper 5 years+ ago Guard had mispelled a traffic offenders name Judge asked him did he the guard ask the offender to spell his name guard replied NO case thrown out Guard told he was lazy if accused had mispelled his name judge would have changed summons if Guard took down info from your Licience there is a chance it will be quashed contact a solicitor

Thegalwayman

OP accept not exceot

mrjoneill

Generally judges amend summons for name errors but where summons states incorrectly where offense committed as where required for the offense the the judge will throw it out also seen case on drunken driving the defendant argued successfully that the MBRS certification presented in court differed in words to that of the one issued to him.... in that it was not a true copy.

Milk & Honey

mrjoneill wrote: »

Generally judges amend summons for name errors but where summons states incorrectly where offense committed as where required for the offense the the judge will throw it out also seen case on drunken driving the defendant argued successfully that the MBRS certification presented in court differed in words to that of the one issued to him.... in that it was not a true copy.

The place where the offence was not committed unless it goes to jurisdiction. A judge in the District Court only has jurisdiction in a limited geographical area. If the summons gives a location outside that the judge cannot amend it since he has no jurisdiction. Within that he can ignore the location. See Order 38 of the District Court Rules. people really need to know what they are doing if they try to take on the system.

mrjoneill

Milk & Honey wrote: »

The place where the offence was not committed unless it goes to jurisdiction. A judge in the District Court only has jurisdiction in a limited geographical area. If the summons gives a location outside that the judge cannot amend it since he has no jurisdiction. Within that he can ignore the location. See Order 38 of the District Court Rules. people really need to know what they are doing if they try to take on the system.

For drunk driving offenses they fail a lot of times because of the arresting Garda gets the location wrong in the wrong townland is named in the summons in where the arrest was made for suspicion of the offense.

Milk & Honey

mrjoneill wrote: »

For drunk driving offenses they fail a lot of times because of the arresting Garda gets the location wrong in the wrong townland is named in the summons in where the arrest was made for suspicion of the offense.

Those failures are mostly due to the fact that the authorisation for the checkpoint referred to a different townland to the location given by the garda in evidence.This can affect the validity of the arrest in some situations.
It is irrelevant what townland is named in the summons unless it is outside the jurisdiction of the Court. A summons is not evidence of the facts set out in it.