Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

All right, here we are. Lawyer talk, off the record, on the air, taking on some comments today. You know, some of the stuff we talk about here, you know, they get chopped up in reels and maybe it's not obvious. Yeah. The whole context of it. Some of the stuff, you know, we just do our best to give our honest assessment of it, and some of it is maybe taking a little bit out of context. Yeah, a lot of the time. A lot of time.

Steve Palmer [00:00:22]:

All right, so we did a comment or a video on competency of police officers to testify in court on traffic tickets. Yeah. And first and foremost, we were talking about Ohio law. Yes. Yeah. So we operate in Ohio, folks. It's what we do. So.

Steve Palmer [00:00:42]:

And then we talked about competency, and I talked about this because it's sort of unique to Ohio. Ohio. So all states have what we call the rules of evidence. And rules of evidence are designed to give you a playbook or a rulebook rather, for how things unfold in a courtroom during trial. What's admissible, what's not admissible, who can testify, who can't testify, what kind of questions you can ask, et cetera. There's all sorts of rules, and Ohio has rules, and most all the other states have rules. And then the federal government has rules. So in federal court, the rules are a little bit different, all very similar, but nuances.

Steve Palmer [00:01:15]:

And Ohio's got a weird nuance on the competency of officers. And what I'm talking about is not that an officer is incompetent, meaning doesn't have the. Isn't mentally competent, but it's a legal term of art, whether they're allowed to testify in certain situations. And in Ohio. I'm just going to. I'm going to read. I should read some of the comments first, because they're great. Where's the one that calls me a fool? That was my email to you.

Steve Palmer [00:01:47]:

That was that guy. Attorney, Ohio. Wrong. Happens all the time, says Brad Blankenship. Just chasing or following or. Hold on, laugh out loud. So wrong. Is this dude your lawyer? You might.

Steve Palmer [00:01:58]:

If this dude's your lawyer, might be cooked. Another guy. Clear. Cop, if I see you off duty, I can mail you a ticket. Please don't hire this fool. Bs. Totally false. This is why we can't trust lawyers.

Steve Palmer [00:02:09]:

You're wrong. And then somebody actually does a chat BT chatgpt. Somebody says chatgpt has thoughts. And this is Ohio's competency rule and actually lists it. And maybe this gets a little bit more to the point. Let's see if he Has a conclusion. He's right. The competency rule does not make the officer's observations automatically invalid.

Steve Palmer [00:02:34]:

Simply prevents the officer from testifying as a witness in court if the conditions are met. Exactly right. So, look, let me tell you what. I'm not saying that police can't pull people over in plain clothes. They can. It happens all the time. And maybe this police officer is correct, does it all the time. I am saying that.

Steve Palmer [00:02:52]:

Well, we'll just read the rule so we're clear, and that way everybody's on the same page. The Ohio Rule 601B. Ohio Evidence Rule 601B. A person is disqualified to testify as a witness when the court determines that the person is any of the following. And it lists a bunch, and then it gets down to subsection four. So a person is disqualified if the court finds that an officer, while on duty for the exclusive or main purpose of enforcing traffic laws, arresting or assisting in the arrest of a person charged with a traffic violation punishable as a misdemeanor, where the officer at the time of the arrest was not using a properly marked motor vehicle as defined by statute or was not wearing a legally distinctive uniform as defined by statute. So that officer can't come into court and testify competently, is precluded to testify because he would be deemed incompetent. That's all I was saying.

Steve Palmer [00:03:48]:

Yeah. So look, he could be on patrol for other reasons and pull somebody over. Yeah. And then that condition wouldn't be met. But that's the purpose. Now, other states have different rules. I know they do, because you drive. All you have to do is drive down south on the freeway and you see officers tucked in and unmarked cruisers pulling people over for traffic violations.

Steve Palmer [00:04:08]:

And. And I'm sure whatever state I'm in when I'm doing that or when I'm driving through does not have the same competency laws as Ohio does. So, look, folks, I'm not always right. I don't claim to be always right, but that's all I was trying to say. I love the comments. I don't think I'm a fool. And I'm happy to represent you if you've got more questions, more comments. Hope that clears it up.

Steve Palmer [00:04:27]:

Leave them in the. In the. Shoot us a question at lawyertalkpodcast.com or leave them right here in the comments and your favorite social media site.