If ticketed in California, BEFORE signing the ticket, note this

[awj223]

Remember, signing a ticket means that you promise to appear at the place (usually a courthouse) noted on the ticket. But you may have the right to request (okay, demand) that the venue be changed from the usual one to the county seat, as indicated in CVC 40502:

http://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/det.../c2/art1/40502

V C Section 40502 Place to Appear

40502. The place specified in the notice to appear shall be any of the following:

(a) Before a magistrate within the county in which the offense charged is alleged to have been committed and who has jurisdiction of the offense and is nearest or most accessible with reference to the place where the arrest is made.

(b) Upon demand of the person arrested, before a judge or other magistrate having jurisdiction of the offense at the county seat of the county in which the offense is alleged to have been committed. This subdivision applies only if the person arrested resides, or the person's principal place of employment is located, closer to the county seat than to the magistrate nearest or most accessible to the place where the arrest is made.

Basically, if you live or work closer to the county seat than the proposed trial location on your ticket, you can demand that the trial be held at the county seat, but you must do this before signing the ticket. If you sign the ticket promising to appear at the normal location, it's too late.

NOTE: If the officer fails to grant your request for the county seat (which is illegal by the way, as this is your right), you should write something like "under protest 40502(b)" or "officer refused county seat" near the "place to appear" on the ticket. The officer will get a carbon copy of everything you written on the ticket, so this will go into the official records, and you can later get the case dismissed on the grounds that your rights under CVC40502(b) have been violated. Do not accept any verbal confirmation that your request for the county seat has been granted, if it has not been changed on the official ticket copy; the officer would be lying, and if you sign the ticket without writing any protest on it, it's your word against the officer's as to whether you really requested it when you should have. While it is possible to ask for a change of venue at arraignment, you'd likely have to go to the farther location to be arraigned, then ask for a transfer of venue, which is a big pain.

The way this works is this: say you live in Berkeley, and you're ticketed in Fremont. The CHP officer would likely want you to show up at the courthouse in Fremont, but the county seat of Alameda County is Oakland, which is closer to Berkeley than Fremont. You can demand that the trial be held in Oakland, 30 minutes north of Fremont (without traffic).

Even better: you're ticketed around Tahoe/Truckee, in Nevada County. Well, the county seat of Nevada County is Nevada City, 52 miles and an hour's drive west of Truckee. If you live in most urban parts of California, Nevada City is also closer to your home/work than is Truckee.

Even better than that: you're ticketed in Blythe, CA, in Riverside County. The county seat of Riverside County is Riverside, CA. Again, if you live in most urban parts of CA, chances are, you're closer to Riverside than to Blythe. Riverside is 173 miles and 2.5 hours (each way) from Blythe.

By moving the trial to a place inconvenient for the officer, you decrease the chances that the officer will show up in court, and increase your chances of winning the case.

I have not heard whether someone who lives in, say, Chicago, could successfully demand a transfer from, say, Truckee, to Nevada City, on the grounds that Nevada City is "closer" to Chicago because most flights from Chicago to California go into SFO, and SFO is closer to Nevada City than Truckee, but since the word "closer" is up for interpretation, it should be up to the judge to decide.

See also:
http://libertyfight.com/county_seat.html