Should I fight a speeding ticket with incorrect info on the ticket?

Question

I was stopped and issued a speeding citation in Wylie, Tx. It was indicated I was going 55 mph in a 45 mph zone. The ticket has my vehicle as a Chevy Tahoe instead of a Chevy Suburban and the vehicle type was listed as box truck instead of SUV. To top it off, I had recently made a left turn onto the street in question and the police officer had supposedly clocked me while traveling in the opposite direction. I may have been going 50 mph, but not 55. Should I try to fight this or take the defensive driving course?

Answer 1

If you try to fight it and lose, which I think you will, you forfeit the chance to take traffic school, you pay the fine, and get the points on your license. Take the course and be done with it.

Answer 2

go to court or post (pay) fine plead no contest! reason being is this you will spend far more money fighting this simple ticket than you would if you just pay the fine! attorney fees, court costs, lost wages from missing work. all would add up to much greater pay out than just paying for the ticket anyways.. ticket maybe $75.00.  verses cost of fighting it at least 300 or more.

Answer 3

the law is based on tecnicallities . if a cop walk into ur house looking for drugs, doesnt find any but finds an illegal gun, it doesn't count becuse it wasnt specifically mentioned. the same with the ticket. if it has wrong info fight it and probably get it thrown out. this happened to a friend. they put a wrong number in for the plate. got it thrown out. basically the vehicle discribed is not ur car so...

Answer 4

I would go to court and plead no contest, and ask the judge for traffic school.  He should allow it.  This will prevent the state from reporting it to your insurance company and upping your rates for about 3 years or more.

As for the discrepancies with the ticket, it really doesn't matter.  The judge will say they are not material to the case of your speeding.  I've tried that one myself, didn't work

If you try to fight it, you will go to court and when your case comes up, you plead not guilty.  The judge will postpone your case and give you another court date, and the police officer will be summoned to appear.  Then the court will rule in favor of the police.  If you have a lawyer, then when you go to court the first time, the lawyer will go in and talk to the judge, and he'll come back and tell you that it has been taken care of, or he may tell you that you have to wait for the judge to call your name and then he may recommend traffic school.

Answer 5

You will not prevail on the technical errors that you have mentioned - the prosecutor by law has wide latitude to amend a summons and complaint, and these are by no means fatal flaws (car type).  the issue is whether or not the court will find that you were going 55.  You admit that you "may" have been going 50.  Although you have no burden to prove your innocense, that doesn't sound very convincing, especially against the radar device that was used on you.  Moving in the opposite direction is not unusual, nor does it make the radar device inaccurate.  Try to get the penalty reduced and be done with it - that's what I would do.  Also keep in mind that driving school can sometimes cost more than the difference in the fine, and most take 8 hours.  Sometimes it's just better to cut your losses.

Answer 6

Once I got away with speeding  when  the cop made a mistake & put the wrong registration number on the ticket.

Answer 7

If you are not guilty,  why pay?    But then,  if you take the DDC,  you are eligible for a 10 % discount on your auto insurance rates.

Fighting it,  you can at best hope the officer is just made to look bad for sloppy work.   Unless you can produce a witness that can verify you just turned onto the street in question and were not going the way the officer claims,  you will most likely not win in municipal court.

Answer 8

The technicalities on the vehicle description will get you laughed out of court.  If he was travelling in the opposite direction, that is also meaningless.  Doppler radar uses the time of signal return, and takes into account the speed and direction of his vehicle.  This capability has existed for many, many, years, probably longer than you have been living.

A radar gun can calculate how quickly a car is moving toward it or away from it. If the radar gun is used inside a moving police car, its own movement is factored in. For example, if the police car is going 50 miles per hour and the gun detects that the target is moving away at 20 miles per hour, the target must be driving at 70 miles per hour. If the radar gun determines that the target is not moving toward or away from the police car, than the target is driving at exactly 50 miles per hour.

Police officers have been catching speeders this way for more than 50 years.

Answer 9

Take the course, you will lose the fight in court.

Answer 10

Unless you get a $2,000.00 attorney to write a letter to the court, you will not win your case, the system is designed to bring in huge revenue for the county state, even if the law was on your side its still up to the judge to decide and is he gonna let you go or is he gonna rob you of $300 plus court and traffic school fees?

If you can get traffic school your lucky because at least then your insurance won't go nuts. You didn't do anything wrong you were just the unlucky guy that got caught up in this broken and corrupt system.

Answer 11

fight the citation most of the time the cop doesn't even show up so if it's a busy day the prosecutor will want to make little things go away. They would rather spend the time dealing with major violations. I've had times when they've given me deals or just dismissed it entirely.

Answer 12

Someone I know.lol Got a speeding ticket and payed the fine ( then took a on line class so it wouldn't be in his permanent record) its like it never happen.

The class was pretty easy and on line so good deal! no record!