Hello community.

I recently recieved a county level ticket in the state of Illinois for speeding on a country road. This occured during daylight hours, dry sunny weather, with 2 other vehicles following behind me. The officer was oncomming. Upon recommendation, I decided to select a trial by jury for this ticket. After further research, Ive found this can be quite expensive and necessitate a lot of court time. Additionaly, I was notified that by selecting trial by jury I waived rights to a layer.

Therefore, if anyone can provide information regarding the usual process for a jury trial involving this type of activity it would be helpful.

I would also like to know if its possible to change the plea or trial type on or before the set court date, and what should be done to reduce expenses as much as possible if going to trial is required.

Any assistance you can provide is greatly appreciated; thanks!

Okay... it's obviously too late to help - but how did this turn out?

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Hello aaron.

When I appeared at court, judge asked if I had a jury instruction prepared. I did not, so my request to trial by jury was denied.

As such, I consulted with a court assistant about being placed under court supervision to have the ticket removed from my record. When we brought this before the judge, I was informed even a $600 dollar fee would be insufficient to allow this.

I had not recieved a speeding ticket up until this point, thus I pleaded guilty, paid the standard fee (95 dollars?), and left.

Perhaps some day the system will change.

I can't say that I'm particularly surprised that they pulled the "jury instructions" trick on a pro se defendant, but the prosecutor would typically also have a set of proposed jury instructions which, all else failing, the defendant could normally agree to be used.

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