Missed a Court Session

Today I received a summon to court about minor driving offense (careless driving). The letter was opened by someone and there were no note or excuse enclosed. Most likely someone got it into his/her mailbox by mistake and opened it. This is not a big deal yet.


What makes it a big deal for is that the summon was dated 17 of July and hearing was on 13 of August, 3 days ago.


It goes without saying that I would go and plea guilty should I received the letter in time. But things took a wrong turn. I notified our caretaker but he was a little help. He said only police could check CCTV. I reported police and they made a record of it (I have report number) but no statement was made yet - they explained that they would take it from me if I would report a theft of my letter. They checked the system - I was not "wanted" for not attending the court. They gave me contacts of case officer (the one who was in charge of my driving accident) and asked me to contact him asap. I will do it tomorrow morning.


Has anyone experienced anything like this? What to do to minimize the consequences? Do I need to report the theft and fight my way through? Cause I am not sure that I can claim anything substantial - potentially the fine for careless driving is less than HKD1,000 - not sure that benefits would outweight the costs. And I know that police is doing formal investigations for such small matters.

Beancurd, thank you very much for your input.


Yes, I did everything exactly the way you advised - in the morning I called police officer at 9am and explained my case. She contacted the court and called me back in 30 minutes telling me that a new summon was issued for 10th of September. This time it will be delivered by courier. No additional charges/fees would be made as first summon was sent by regular (unregistered) mail and the court understood that some recepients might not received summons sent by unregistered mail for any reason. Also, I gave her the number of my report (the one that I made to police once I discovered the theft of the letter). Maybe they would want to follow-up my case and give a kick to someone who steals and reads other people's mail.

beancurd that is a horrible experience for a world class city