How do you fight a traffic ticket?

Question

I know, basically, you go to court and talk to the judge and say you did not commit the offense.

However, what if you know d**n well that you are guilty of exactly what the cop wrote on the ticket. Or worse yet, you were going 15 over the limit and the cop only wrote you up for Five over the limit.

How do you fight the ticket with out having to lie under oath in court?

Also, if you were doing 15 over and the cop was nice enough to only write you for going Five over, if you fight the ticket and lose, can they change the ticket from Five to 15 over?

Answer 1

Two things 1) If you have a bad driving record and need to fight the ticket then you probably need a lawyer.  

2) If you have a good driving record just take defensive driving or deferred adjudication and the ticket will not go on your driving record. Even if the ticket does go on your record your insurance will most likely not go up or just go up a little.

If you have a good driving record the expense of a lawyer is not worth the time and effort to fight this ticket in court.

If I fought the ticket and I would not, but if I did I believe the officer would have to be in court. If the officer does not show up then you get off. I believe this is the case.

But my suggestion is to take a comedy defensive driving class and laugh your ticket away.

Answer 2

If you really cant afford the points on your record, first go to court and ask to fight the ticket, when you go for your court date make it for as far back as possible, then you can ask for an extension as long as your asking 12 days before your court date, get that date as far back as you can, check online about what the officer needs to prove his radar was working properly, he has to have that paperwork or it should be dismissed but you have to ask to see it and for him to show proof, alot of times they don't show up for court and it's dismissed, 3 out of my last 4 were dismissed that way, and if he does and you loose so what your still right where you were before with a small fine or traffic school and a small fine, fight them all you have a good chance.

Answer 3

You have to give concrete evidence together with a police report why you are driving that fast.

Answer 4

First off if you where going 15 over and he was nice enough to make it 5 over I'm not sure why you want to try to fight it but here is what I know.

First off, as you said, if you want to fight it you have to go to your court date and probably need a lawyer.

Second, when you go to court you are obviously going to need some type of argument. This could have to do with the officer not following procedure, defective equipment, just something that shows either you weren't speeding or the officer had no reasonable way of telling you were. I doubt there's a chance you could prove there was reason you were going over the speed limit. Something like that would have been brought up when the cop pulled you over.

As far as not having to lie under oath the only way I could see getting around that is if 1. You didn't have to testify since your basically the defendant in the case. Or  2. When or if they do ask you how fast you were going, you plead the 5th amendment.

I don't think you would really have much of a chance unless you put together a pretty good case against it. Since you would be pleading the 5th your kind of saying that you were actually speeding. So your case on why you shouldn't get the ticket wouldn't have to do with you not speeding but that the speeding ticket was not valid for some reason. Like I said this could be because something the officer didn't do or did wrong, or somehow the equipment was faulty or anyway that there reading of your speed was not valid. Then when you plead the 5th the judge would have no choice but to let it go.

I'm not sure if the judge can bring the speed of the ticket up but I know he can lower it so it's possible. This most likely wouldn't happen because you would never say how fast you were going and the cop probably wouldn't say he lowered it and if he did it still probably wouldn't be raised.

If you have some type of deferral program where you live I would take that instead of going to court. If you do go to court and lose then I know you can no longer use the deferral program.

If you can't get a good argument together there's probably no real chance but if you find out that the judge can't increase the speed and you don't have one of these programs then I guess there might not be anything to lose. Although if you went the route with a lawyer it could get pretty expensive.

Either way I think you should pay the fine and try to slow down. It's not a very big deal and it probably isn't too much money. With the deferral program here, you pay slightly more but if you don't get a moving violation for 1 year then the ticket is completely erased from your record.

For the person under me and to show my source. A few years ago I was in a situation where i was accused of doing 31 over when i was doing 15 over (small town and cop didn't like my dad, my mom had warned me plenty of times about him and I wasn't paying attention to my speed). I had a lawyer but took the deferral because my lawyer said best case I would still be charged with 15 over unless i lied in court or pleaded the 5th. Since I was underage he advised me not to try it.  The police officer was improperly using his radar on a large hill were there were a lot of trees and solid stone wall between portions of him and the oncoming drivers.

I could see the possibility of a ticket not being change once it is written in the since that, that actual ticket can not be changed. Although I know this is not the case when you go to court. The speed can be reduced in court. I don't know if it could actually be raised but I wouldn't be surprised. Of course the speed could also be changed to nothing if you could prove you weren't speeding. There are also some tricky ways of getting your ticket thrown out on some websites but I wouldn't personally try them.

One other thing to remember that when your going up against speeding ticket your basically guilty until proven innocent. Also the cop is always right unless you can 100% prove he is wrong.

Answer 5

Your guilty, pay your fine, learn your lesson, and move on with a clean conscience.

Answer 6

go to court and plead not guilty.

if your lucky you will be allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge

possibly a non moving violation.

unless you were not speeding you will have to lie.

Answer 7

They can't change the ticket once it's been written.

Answer 8

i beat a ticket ones by going to dealer and having speedometer recalabrated...told judge speedo was off..showed him repair bill..he changed speed ticket to faulty equipment..no moving violation no insurance increase