Court Opinion

ID: 9704615
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:41:16.497857+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:03.615942
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
I am compelled to agree with the Majority that this case must be returned to the trial court for the opportunity of Appellant to exercise her right to file post-verdict motions because that is the state of the law today. I write separately to voice my concern regarding the oversaturated barrel of rights granted to defendants of very minor offenses without regard to the burdens imposed thereby on the overburdened courts and the eversuffering taxpayers.
Summary offenses are handled summarily because they involve very minor transgressions against society. We consider such offenses so minor that we have no hesitancy in denying defendants the right to trial by jury. It is true that some summary offenses carry penalties including the possibility of incarceration. Such cases must receive the full panoply of rights guaranteed to all criminal defendants.
Yet, other summary offenses involve only fines and no threat of imprisonment. Such are motor vehicle violations, i.e., stop sign and red light cases. It has been estimated that it costs the taxpayers $2,500.00 to catch, charge, try and convict a stop sign violator from the time that a police officer first stops the offender until the highest court in the Commonwealth, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, either rejects the appeal, or accepts and decides it. All this for a *179fine of $25.00! I find this an outrageous abuse of our limited judicial resources and of the taxpayers’ monies.
A stop sign violator has a right to trial before a district justice; an appeal and trial de novo in our court of common pleas; if convicted, a right to file post-verdict motions alleging errors in possibly a 10 minute trial; arguments before the judge on those motions; a decision and a written opinion from the trial judge if the conviction is sustained; an appeal to the Superior Court with the filing of briefs, argument before the court and another written opinion; and finally, a petition for allowance of appeal with the Supreme Court with the possibility of the appeal being allowed, briefs filed, arguments heard before the seven justices of the Supreme Court and another written opinion explaining the decision of the Court. All for the purpose of justifying a fine of $25.00! Some say to all this, “God bless America.” I say, “God have mercy on us.”
I call upon my brethren to correct this idiocy and if they will not, I call upon the legislature to remove the stop sign, red light type of offenses from the ambit of the criminal laws. Until such action is taken, I must reluctantly agree that Sarah Hollingsworth must be afforded the right to file post-verdict motions as any other criminal defendant, and continue encumbering our court dockets.