Defective Uniform Traffic Citation Under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.01 / Minn. Stat. §169.91
Minnesota's Uniform Traffic Citation (UTC) and parking citations must contain specific elements under Minnesota Rules of Criminal Procedure 6.01 and §169.91: (1) name and address of accused or vehicle plate, (2) registered owner identification, (3) the specific offense with statute/ordinance section, (4) date, time, and location of violation, (5) officer/agent ID, (6) court appearance date or payment instructions, (7) signature certification. Material omission of any of these elements (illegible plate, wrong statute number, missing date, no officer ID) renders the citation defective and unenforceable. Courts and hearing officers routinely dismiss for material defects.
Legal basis
Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.01; Minn. Stat. §169.91; State v. Klamar (technical defects); Minneapolis Code §478.30
Sample appeal wording
[DATE] Re: Appeal of Citation #[CITATION_NUMBER] This citation is fatally defective under Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.01 and Minn. Stat. §169.91, and must be dismissed. The citation is missing or contains incorrect information for the following required elements: 1. [SPECIFIC DEFECT — e.g., 'The cited statute is listed as "169.345" but the alleged conduct is described as overstaying a meter, which is governed by Minneapolis Code §478.110 — citation cites wrong law'] 2. [SPECIFIC DEFECT — e.g., 'No officer or parking enforcement agent ID is recorded in the issuing officer field'] 3. [SPECIFIC DEFECT — e.g., 'Time of violation is recorded as 25:30, an impossible time'] 4. [SPECIFIC DEFECT — e.g., 'License plate is illegible / does not match my vehicle'] Under Minnesota law, a citation that fails to provide adequate notice of the offense or that misidentifies critical elements does not satisfy due process and cannot support a finding of liability. See State v. Klamar. I request dismissal. [NAME]
Replace [PARKING DATE], [NtK DATE] etc. with your own dates before sending.
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- Minn. R. Crim. P. 6.01
- Minn. Stat. §169.91 (revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/169.91)
- Hennepin County Violations Bureau procedures