Sunday, August 9, 2009

THE OTHER GUY GOT THE TICKET...




By David McCarthy

Wish we had a nickel for each time somone involved in a traffic accident has said, "The other guy got a ticket." That fact is irrelevant to the question whether the "other guy" is or is not liable for any injuries or property damage that may have ensued.

For that matter if the ticket ripens into a conviction, that too is irrelevant and inadmissible, at least if the offense in question was a minor one. If the other guy pleads guilty to the offense, that is admissible; but not the fact that he was ticketed or the fact that he was convicted... Another common misconception: Traffic accident reports are a latter day equivalent of the burning bush talking to Moses.

Not so.

They are hearsay, they often involve multiple layers of hearsay, and in general the police officers who write up the reports did not witness the events in question. Unless the report qualifies for that arcane exception to the hearsay rule known as past recollection recorded, it will not be admitted into evidence... Linda Tripp would have been at risk in Illinois, too.

Remember her?

The woman who taped her telephone conversations with Monica Lewinsky?

Illinois is an "all-party" state. It is a crime to hear or record a conversation without the consent of all parties to the conversation. And as an astute observer recently pointed out, you know all those "Soccer Moms" on the sidelines on Saturday morning with their camcorders whirring?

Felons all.

(720 ILCS 5/13-1 et seq.)

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