Need some guidance....Defendant with CDL pleads guilty to speeding ticket and appeals to County Court. Defense attorney arguing that because the JP judgment (where defendant plead guilty) is not in the County Court's file then case must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction or something like that. Why the judgment is not in the file, I don't know. I don't even know if the judgment is required to be in the file. My question is, if a JP judgment is not in the County Court's file, then what is the status of the case? County Judge is asking us to brief the issue(!).

If you will give me a fax number I will fax a old but pretty good discussion about appeals out of municipal and justice court. It is from an old State Bar text book. It discusses jurisdiction and so forth. I think there will be enough there to "wow" the judge. The short answer to the defendant's allegation is "hogwash". Also my email, fax and phone are in the TDCAA directory.
John Hutchison
CA, Hansford County