Elizabeth D.

asked • 09/09/19

In this sentence what is to be done "within seven days"? Explain grammatically.

Except when required by state law to take immediately before a district judge a person arrested for violation of any provision of this chapter, including any rule adopted pursuant to this chapter, any person authorized to enforce the provisions of this chapter, hereinafter referred to as enforcement officer, upon arresting a person for violation of any provision of this chapter, including any rule adopted pursuant to this chapter shall issue to the alleged violator a summons or citation printed in the form hereinafter described, warning the alleged violator to appear and answer to the charge against the alleged violator at a certain place and at a time within seven days after such arrest.


"Shall issue to the alleged violator a summons" and "to appear and answer" have been put forth as possibilities.....

John B.

tutor
The previous comment explains what needs to be done quite accurately. Here is a more detailed explanation of the grammar. “at a time,” “within seven days,” and even “after such arrest” are all prepositional phrases that together modify the verbs “appear” and “answer.” Prepositional phrases can behave just like adverbs in the sense that they can describe/modify verbs. For example: ”I run with my hands in the air.” The two prepositional phrases “with my hands” and “in the air” together describe how I ran—like adverbs they modify a verb; in this case “run.” I hope this is helpful.
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09/18/19

Margaret L.

Begin by identifying the subject and verb in the sentence. To do that, find and remove the modifying phrases and clauses; some will be adjectives - telling which one, what kind, how many; some will be adverbs - telling when, how, how often how much). There are a lot of these in legal language since there is an attempt to close off any room for argument with what the rule of the law is. Sifting through all the legally necessary extra language in this sample, you can eventually tease out the subject “the enforcement officer” and the verb “ shall issue”. The necessary prepositional phrase “to the alleged violator” is followed by the direct object “ a summons”. Searching for some explanation of this summons, you will come across the infinitive “to appear”, and in the very last line of the quote, you will finally see the two prepositional phrases that complete the answer to your question, “within seven days after such arrest.” Read together, your selected, necessary pieces state, “ The enforcement officer shall issue to the alleged violator a summons to appear within seven days after such arrest.” So that is what is to be done within seven days. Reading legal language can be difficult until you understand that there is a lot of explanatory and descriptive language you have to sort through. Just keep your eyes on the subject/verb/object thread, and any modifiers absolutely necessary to the bottom line meaning of each sentence and ignore the rest. ( Unless you’re taking LSAT!)
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10/27/19

1 Expert Answer

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Heather S. answered • 09/10/19

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The way this sentence is written, the "within seven days" refers to the alleged violator, stating that such alleged violator has to appear before a judge to answer the charges within the seven days. That's the answer grammatically. I suspect, however, that what the sentence intends is for the summons or citation requiring the alleged's appearance must be issued within seven days. That's not technically how the sentence is constructed, however.

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