Are summonses not supposed to be delivered by hand or by registered post?
I have experience of this, where I never received a summons, and so was convicted in my absence, of speeding.
I appealed to the district court, but the judge dismissed the appeal within seconds... my appeal was on the basis that I never received a summons., and so never got a chance to defend myself. The guard said he had posted a summons... not by registered post, or personnally.. just by regular post, and the judge accepted this. I was furious.
So then I had to appeal to the circuit court,... and once there the state chose not to contest the case. This was sickening in my view, and illustrated to me that justice is hard enough to come by.
Incidentally my defence on the original speeding ticket, had I been given a chance would have been that I never received a printout of the speed, as was required at that time, and may still be. The DPP should never have allowed the original case to go ahead as the state did not have the necessary paperwork to secure a conviction... so why did he?
And why was the district court judge so quick to convict given that there was no compelling evidence of a summons having issued?.. and why was the District Court judge so quick to dismiss the appeal, given again that there was no evidence of me having been informed of my case?
I feel the state will steam-roller people into convictions that they'd have problems securing in a court... and the DPP knows this.