What can I do to fight a speeding ticket?

[BuickMike]

The other day I was pulled over by a motercycle cop for going 57 in a 45. He got me on Radar. As soon as I found out I was 2 months short of being elidgable for traffic school, I decided that I'm going to take this one to court. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't be able to show, but if he does, I'd like to have some ammunition so I don't look like a total idiot. Here's the deal:

I was driving north on a 6 lane road (3 lanes on each side) in a grouping of traffic. When I saw him on the side of the road with the radar, he was approximately 1/8th mile away. There was a BMW 3 series coming up on my tail at that moment. He actually passed me on the right.

I'd really like to ask him how he know's that he tagged me and not the cars around me? I also would like to ask for a calibration report prior to when he gave me the ticket. There is a $75 difference between 10 over and 12 over. I want him to prove that he wrote me the right ticket. How can I go about this?

 

[BlackMetal]

Your word against his. He should know how to work the equipment and know which car he was targeting. The "calibration" arguement is old and doesn't do much for you. Frankly I don't know why you feel like fighting it. You can argue that someone was riding your tail and they will simply say you should have maintained speed and let them pass.

 

[TURBOPOWERED68]

My uncle just beat one. 77 on a 55
Request his records (in writing by sertified, registerd sign for mail) for that day for your review, in order to prepare a defense.
The cop/PD failed to hand them over and when this was told to the judge he just dismissed it.
The cops log is "evidence" and failing to share requested evidence is a big NO NO.
Just make shore you request it with enough time for them to get it to you "at least in the courts eyes" Most PDs are so over loaded with so much other Crap that tedious stuff like this falls through the cracks.

Good luck
The odds are against you Big time
I only beat 1 out off 3 and that was because the cop didn't have his log book.

 

[Gothmog]

Dont know how it works out there, but in NYC, I argued my ticket, the judge beleived the lying cop, but the judge still reduced it

In Jersey, The DA walked around a huge room of ticketed people before we met the judge, and basically plea bargained down to a lesser charge. lesser charge, less points, less $. so when you finally appeared before the judge, it took 2 seconds.

If money is no object, get in touch with your local BAR, they will recommend a lawyer that will make it go away.

 

[Junior Samples]

Make sure the cop brings a copy of the traffic and engineering survey done on that part of the road where you got ticket.
they must be done every 5 yrs in order for radar to be legally inforced

when they do the survey, thats them boxes on wheels that shows your speed on side of the road...always bad to slow down when you should be speeding up

you can get copy at engineering dept at cityhall

other then that you can drag it out..call the first time and show up with good excuse the second time

Does Az have Prima Facie speed limits?...just a long shot

anyway good luck

 

[tommynos]

Ive beat over 6 tickets! At minimum it will be withhold adjudication(no points) Just say you know for a fact it wasnt you and he must of had mistaken you,and stick to it and im 100% positive you will win,at minimum,get no points...Allways fight your ticket,ands ive told many people to do so and all of them were happy they did,just dont say"I dont think it was me" say "I know for a fact it wasnt me,my speedo is correct and I know what speed I was at" Maybe even bring in a record stating your speedo is correct just to really confuse the court...Remember this,When a cop tickets you or arrest you,that does not mean your guilty,it just means HE thinks you are,fight it and let the judge or jury decide!

 

[BlackoutDrunk]

Ive beat over 6 tickets! At minimum it will be withhold adjudication(no points) Just say you know for a fact it wasnt you and he must of had mistaken you,and stick to it and im 100% positive you will win,at minimum,get no points...Allways fight your ticket,ands ive told many people to do so and all of them were happy they did,just dont say"I dont think it was me" say "I know for a fact it wasnt me,my speedo is correct and I know what speed I was at" Maybe even bring in a record stating your speedo is correct just to really confuse the court...Remember this,When a cop tickets you or arrest you,that does not mean your guilty,it just means HE thinks you are,fight it and let the judge or jury decide!

Big +2 on that!!!! A friend of mine went to court, had a similar situation (was picked out of a group) and just told the judge that the officer must of picked out the wrong person in the group. When the judge asked him how he would know that he told the judge "because I WATCH my speedometer your honor" and then he went on to explain that he was in a group of cars, was being passed blah blah blah. It probably helped that he's not a young kid but it worked. I was shocked that it was that easy.

 

[turbofish38]

You cant win. I got a ticket the same way you did about 20 years ago. I was on the interstate in a pack of cars going with the traffic flow. I was the guy who won the lottery. I made it all the way to court. The DA provided all the witnesses and evidence at no charge to me. Only to find out all the engineering and scientific opinion didn't make a dent in my case. I cant think what they called it but in laymans terms it was the shotgun effect. A cop aims his radar into a moving group of cars. If his gun beeps at the target speed everyone is guilty of speeding or going whatever speed the gun picked up. I just happened to be the first law abidding driver to pull over when the flashing blue lights were behind me. Stupid me huh? Oh and it was "I got you doing 12 over the limit but I'm going to write the ticket for doing 1MPH over since the interstate is federal and the fine is the same." Thats what burned me. Now I could have bucked the ticket if he did write me up for for the true 12 over. One sneekey SOB that cop. I learned a lesson. You cant beat the system if you dont know how it works. If it was me I'd look into what the penalty is really going to cost. Google "speeding ticket in New York" for a good example. One of my buddies got nabbed up there doing 20(!) over. They have some goofy tax or assesment on tickets there. The tab is at $3000 right now. A lawyer would have been money well spent I'm thinking.

Edit: You know how your mind wonders in certain situations? As I was sitting there in court, I kind of felt like a B-17 pilot who was the stragler of his squadron on a bomb run over Berlin and got picked off by the ME109s. There is safety in numbers I was thinking.

 

[BuickMike]

Thanks for the replies. I have fought tickets before. Out of 3 that the cops actually showed yp for, I actually won one on a technicality. I know my chances are slim, but I have nothing to lose.

 

[BLACK6PACK]

Traffic Ticket Attorney / Lawyer | The Ticket Clinic Florida and Nationwide | Speeding Ticket Lawyer in Florida

Look for something like this in your area. I've got out of at least all of my last 6 tickets. I used to fight them myself, plea down to no points and $50 court costs. Then I started paying a lawyer. The people above show up at the same time all the average joes are fighting their tickets, but the lawyer has a pile of about 50-300 tickets. The judge flips through all of them in just a few minutes and only pulls out the really bad ones all the rest are dropped. Costs me $69 and I don't have to do a thing.

 

[87GNSteve]

Ive beat over 6 tickets! At minimum it will be withhold adjudication(no points) Just say you know for a fact it wasnt you and he must of had mistaken you,and stick to it and im 100% positive you will win,at minimum,get no points...Allways fight your ticket,ands ive told many people to do so and all of them were happy they did,just dont say"I dont think it was me" say "I know for a fact it wasnt me,my speedo is correct and I know what speed I was at" Maybe even bring in a record stating your speedo is correct just to really confuse the court...Remember this,When a cop tickets you or arrest you,that does not mean your guilty,it just means HE thinks you are,fight it and let the judge or jury decide!

I did the opposite, I went to court stating that my speedometer was inaccurate and I got it fixed and produced a reciept for $90.
I told them that I thought I was obeying the limit and after I recieved the ticket I verified that the car did have a speedo problem, being the car is 20 yrs old and all etc etc.
I basically threw myself on the "mercy" of the court and they dropped the ticket.
Its the same principal as the tail light ticket where you fix it and they drop it.
This goes out the window if you admitted to the cop when he pulled you over that you were speeding.
NEVER admit anything, plead the 5th at the scene!

 

[Ttype83]

I did the opposite, I went to court stating that my speedometer was inaccurate and I got it fixed and produced a reciept for $90.
I told them that I thought I was obeying the limit and after I recieved the ticket I verified that the car did have a speedo problem, being the car is 20 yrs old and all etc etc.
I basically threw myself on the "mercy" of the court and they dropped the ticket.
Its the same principal as the tail light ticket where you fix it and they drop it.
This goes out the window if you admitted to the cop when he pulled you over that you were speeding.
NEVER admit anything, plead the 5th at the scene!

That woud be my case if I had to go

 

[rafael vasquez]

The other day I was pulled over by a motercycle cop for going 57 in a 45. He got me on Radar. As soon as I found out I was 2 months short of being elidgable for traffic school, I decided that I'm going to take this one to court. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't be able to show, but if he does, I'd like to have some ammunition so I don't look like a total idiot. Here's the deal:

I was driving north on a 6 lane road (3 lanes on each side) in a grouping of traffic. When I saw him on the side of the road with the radar, he was approximately 1/8th mile away. There was a BMW 3 series coming up on my tail at that moment. He actually passed me on the right.

I'd really like to ask him how he know's that he tagged me and not the cars around me? I also would like to ask for a calibration report prior to when he gave me the ticket. There is a $75 difference between 10 over and 12 over. I want him to prove that he wrote me the right ticket. How can I go about this?

PRAY,,,PRAY,,,,PRAY,,,,,,,,PRAY,,,,

 

[GNBRETT]

Depending on your local prosecutors office they will require the radar itself to be calibrated either anually or bi-anually. Usually the department will keep up with the proper certification but not always. But if you require the officer to produce those records then the officer will likely show in court so he can get the overtime if it is not his regular shift or day off. That is always a gamble.

Radar technology today permits radars to track the fastest vehicle in the pack as well as the vehicle traveling in either direction (meaning the radar is ignoring opposite lane traffic). Same lane radars are not all that common today but fastest lane technology is. Meaning the radar is picking up the fastest car in the pack in one display window and switches widows to indicate the closest vehicle when that vehicle becomes the closest to the radar antenna. Unless the radar is antiquated the size of the vehicle is not a consideration.

A police officer can only stop one vehicle at a time unless flagging cars down in the road so I would not go with the argument that another car was traveling faster then you and why wasn't that car stopped. That argument is older then radars themselves and have been heard a million times over.

Paying for an attorney will usually help since the majority of attorneys have a relatively decent relationship with prosecutors and therefore the price that you payed for the attorney will sometimes suffice in the eyes of the court for a minor traffic offense.

Absent any unusual circumstanes the court will always side with the officer when it's your word against his. Neary all traffic violation are based on the observations of the officer unless a camera takes a picture of your plate. The fact that someone was traveling as fast or faster the you were does not change the fact that you yourself were exceeding the speed limit.

 

[Junior Samples]

Depending on your local prosecutors office they will require the radar itself to be calibrated either anually or bi-anually. Usually the department will keep up with the proper certification but not always.

Brett, yeah its a gamble with the ole tuning fork...
although once i won with the engineering survey thing, I tried another time with the FCC list to see if the radar was on the list....um it was, I looked like a dummy and they made a fine example outta me..LOL never had another ticket since.

 

[bosted86]

dpending on what radar unit they were using, it usually picks up largest vehicle. if there was a truck or tractor trailer near you, then it probably pick up on that. also if there was a lot of traffic around you then the radar does sometimes get confused and will not lock onto a certain object unless it is very large. the officer has to prove that you were moving at a certain speed and the radar just backs up his observations.request discovery and you must be provided with all the radar unit paperwork along with his radar certification card.

also go to court and speak with the prosecutor. they usually have better things to do then to go to trial for a speeding ticket. at least that is how it is in my court.

your friendly neighborhood cop,:biggrin:
pat

 

[klrv6]

Yep

I did the opposite, I went to court stating that my speedometer was inaccurate and I got it fixed and produced a reciept for $90.
I told them that I thought I was obeying the limit and after I recieved the ticket I verified that the car did have a speedo problem, being the car is 20 yrs old and all etc etc.
I basically threw myself on the "mercy" of the court and they dropped the ticket.
Its the same principal as the tail light ticket where you fix it and they drop it.
This goes out the window if you admitted to the cop when he pulled you over that you were speeding.
NEVER admit anything, plead the 5th at the scene!

I used to work at body shop an my boss would *fix* speedometers all the time. It depended on how well he knew the person but, he made a fair amount of money for doing nothing more than writing an estimate and charging labor to *recalibrate* the speedo. AFAIK every one of them was dismissed. Nothing was ever really wrong with the cars and the customers knew that. They just needed a way out of the ticket.

 

[GNBRETT]

Brett, yeah its a gamble with the ole tuning fork...
although once i won with the engineering survey thing, I tried another time with the FCC list to see if the radar was on the list....um it was, I looked like a dummy and they made a fine example outta me..LOL never had another ticket since.

Lol.... Yea, you had me with that engineering thing I was like "$hit, I never thought of that .

I can actually see the validity of that because we have had some road changes as well as an influx of college students in the last 10 years and the speed limit never changed. Connecticut is so liberal I could see one trying to make that argument and possibly winning but it would be a difficult argument that the speed limit should be raised in an urban environment. Possibly on the highway tho but unlikely. Because your argument would not be that the speed limit should be lowered because that would mean an even higher fine...lol

 

[87GNSteve]

I used to work at body shop an my boss would *fix* speedometers all the time. It depended on how well he knew the person but, he made a fair amount of money for doing nothing more than writing an estimate and charging labor to *recalibrate* the speedo. AFAIK every one of them was dismissed. Nothing was ever really wrong with the cars and the customers knew that. They just needed a way out of the ticket.

I didnt even have a repair shop reciept, (I bought a tach/VSS buffer for an aftermarket speedo) and showed the part purchase invoice and the instructions on how it was wired. The judge didnt even look at them, the bailff did for 5 seconds and handed them back to me.
Trying to fight the ticket head on is insane.

 

[gnxtc2]

The other day I was pulled over by a motercycle cop for going 57 in a 45. He got me on Radar. As soon as I found out I was 2 months short of being elidgable for traffic school, I decided that I'm going to take this one to court. Maybe I'll get lucky and he won't be able to show, but if he does, I'd like to have some ammunition so I don't look like a total idiot. Here's the deal:

I was driving north on a 6 lane road (3 lanes on each side) in a grouping of traffic. When I saw him on the side of the road with the radar, he was approximately 1/8th mile away. There was a BMW 3 series coming up on my tail at that moment. He actually passed me on the right.

I'd really like to ask him how he know's that he tagged me and not the cars around me? I also would like to ask for a calibration report prior to when he gave me the ticket. There is a $75 difference between 10 over and 12 over. I want him to prove that he wrote me the right ticket. How can I go about this?

You will not win the larger target arguement. If there is a pack of cars traveling the same speed, it's the officer's choice on who to pull over. Maybe you were pulling away from the pack. Maybe the pack slowed down around you and you seemed to be traveling faster. When I became radar certified, I was taken out in a patrol car with a radar unit and I had to know the speed of the car within 3mph without looking at the radar screen. Atleast that's how NJ works. After awhile of doing radar, you know how fast a car is traveling without looking at the radar screen. Here in NJ, the LEO's observation comes first then the radar confirms his/her observation.

Motorcycle cops use the hand held type radar guns. Was the radar gun a laser or wave length type? If he/she has laser, you are in for a battle. The laser gun has view port and you aim it a your target (you) You could ask to see the calabration certificate of the gun, LEO's certification of using the equipment, did he test the gun prior to using it, etc, etc. You will have to do your homework to beat a radar ticket. The prosecutor is not going to advise you anything, he there to find you guilty.

If I were you, I would call the court and set a court date for a plea. Meet with the prosecutor and have him down grade it, much easier and faster. Usually the guilty pleas go first, then the pleas and finally the trials go last.

It doesn't matter if he wrote a mistake on the ticket. You were still driving over the speed limit.

All this is true in NJ.

Billy T.
gnxtc2@aol.com