Eyger

I started posting in the thread that's stickied at that top about california laws for import mods....but it turned out to be more like a lecture about fighting for your rights. If you want to read it, i'm sure it'll give you piece of mind when it comes to fighting for your rights. Essentially I just wanted to post a couple of things which may be of value to anyone (I'm not a lawyer or anything, but I've gained some experience fighting so many tickets):

A) First and foremost, the law is just like any other documentation, it can be read in between the lines, both ways. The citing police officer will provide reason why you were in violation of what you were doing at that time. That reason is the officers sole interpretation of the law. Weather it be the California vehicle code, or some type of federal regulation, it's always open to interpretation. There is in light of that, always room for determination of weather or not you were doing something wrong.

B) The sheriff station and local courthouse have no reason to find you innocent. The funding for their budgets of all sorts, including uniforms, lockers, lunch banquets, oil changes, whatever, the funding comes from the tax payer. And the ticket payer. When they find you innocent of your citation, the courthouse looses revenue. You really need to fight the crap out of your ticket to keep your money.

C) The majority of cops are bull$hitters. I say this with bitterness in regards to the fact that I have had cops lie to my face and expect me to believe it. This reason ties directly into the fact that you are the person that pays the officers paycheck. Although no one will admit it, which is reasonable enough due to explanation, departments have quotas....well not quotas, but if everyone wants to get paid the same amount of money that they have been getting paid, they need to rake it in from the people. Cops will lie to you to get you to pay the ticket.....I'm dead serious. I've had cops tell me that my car is illegal for infinite amount of reasons, all because they want to shut me down. But I'm not down with that. In any respect.

D) You have nothing to loose by fighting your ticket. Period, there is no if and's or but's about it. If you get a ticket, fight it. You'll be surprised of the results. I've fought many infractions. I've won many infractions, but never have I just given in to the system. If you ever think it's not worth it, then you might as well just put your car up on blocks and never drive it again to give the cops what they want.

E) Always Extend and push out your ticket. I've been able to delay the court date for my ticket for up to 8 months since the citation. It's really easy to do this because the court house has court dates backed up for months and months. This is just traffic cases, not criminal cases. If you don't have the money to pay for the ticket (when you plead not guilty on a ticket you have to pay the bail.) You can push it back big time.

Here's how to push it back: you can first request an extension (which cost nothing) which will push the date back something like a month or two sometimes three. Then plead not guilty, pay the bail, to go court, fight your ticket. If you still don't have the money after the extension, go in before your extension is up, you can wait till the day before to get maximum delay and request a arraignment date. The arraignment date is just a pre-court date to determine the punishment if found guilty at your hearing....don't worry about this, requesting an arraignment date will just push the date back something like a month. BEFORE your arraignment date comes up, go in and plead not guilty. At this point you don't really have a choice with the money, either pay it to go to court, or pay it to pay off the ticket. Whatever you do, hang in there, because you'll never believe what happens most commonly. The further back you push your court date, the more likely it will be that the case will be dismissed here's why:

THE POLICE RARELY SHOW UP IN COURT! you might think it's strange to hear this, but I'll tell you what, from all of the times that I've been to court to fight a ticket about ONE FOURTH of the people who are there to fight a ticket actually gets to fight it.... the rest of the peoples cases are just dismissed because the citing officer is not present to hold up their end of the case. This is the BEST thing you can take advantage of, plead not guilty and then hope they don't show up, if they don't show up, YOU WIN and you're money is sent back to you simple as that. If they do show up, you can ask then a ton of questions and then convince the judge that you weren't doing anything wrong.

-What to do when you get to court:
This is an interesting subject because each courthouse and judge will treat the person who was given the citation differently. I've had personal firsthand experience with different judges. The judges in my immediate area are complete and udder jackasses. They treat the person who was given the citation as though they know nothing about the court system. Most judges, unless you present a major case changing piece of evidence ( explaining that powdered sugar got on the radar lens from the donuts the officer was eating isn't going to help) the judge will most likely just say that he is still convinced that you are guilty and close the case. Most courthouses work the same way. You wait around, then they call your name, if the citing officer is present then you both sit down at the desks in front of the judge, then the judge will ask the officer all kinds of regulation questions pertaining to the case such as, weather or not the road was surveyed and weather or not he was trained for the use of radar. After he's done asking those questions to them, then you are allowed to ask the police officer whatever questions you want. Most officers have a bad attitude about answering your questions. They just think it's a waste of time. In order to get them to say things that you want them to, either to make them look less credible, or to get your point across to the judge, you have to build a foundation. This is just a small part of the fundamentals of being a lawyer.

Other notes:
-Even if you go to court and the cop DOES show up, and the Judge DOES find you guilty, you can ask the judge, "If I change my plea to Guilty, or no contest, will you waive the points on my record?" But of course you have to sincerely show him that you've learned a lesson and you want to correct the situation.

-When an officer pulls you over and begins asking questions. Just simply answer the questions. Do not argue and do not throw an attitude. Court is where you fight the ticket, not right as he's about to give it to you. And for gods sake, have some dignity and don't start saying, things like 'sir yes sir I do have insurance, sir.' C'mon, there a police officer, treat them with respect as you would the person behind the counter at subway, but don't grovel or pump hot air into his head.

-If you haven't had a citation in a long time, and you feel that you screwed up and the cop seems like a cool guy, it's ok to ask them to let you slide. Something like "Do you think you can let me off with a warning for this one, I'm really sorry I wasn't paying attention I understand I messed up, but I'll be more careful." He might let you go. Although this is a double edged sword. If you say this and he still gives you the ticket, he may or may not use what you said in court if you plead not guilty down the road so be careful.

-RADAR IS HORSE HOCKEY! Did you know that... the department of transportation estimates that your speedometer can be up to 7mph OFF from real speed. That's why breaking the speed limit starts at 5mph and over. Radar is completely bogus. In order to use it correctly, you need to be stationary with a fixed point either coming to you or traveling away from you. You can't friggin radar someone when you are driving behind them or eating donuts driving the opposite direction. THEREFORE: if a cop tells you he radar'd you doing some ridiculous speed and he was traveling the opposite direction, then a red flag should go up immediately in your mind telling you that the officer is trying to pull your leg.

FINAL THOUGHT: Always remember that when you're driving, the best thing to do is to follow the law of course. Although if you're like me, you believe that speeding is a victimless crime, and that speed limits should be different during different times of the day. Do you know how they determine how fast a speed limit should be on a road? The answer might surprise you, the department of transportation surveys a road's speed limit by taking the average speed people drive on the road and subtract 10 mph, rounded down. So if most people drive an average of 60mph, DOT says the road can only be traveled safely at 50mph. HOW does that make sense?! Did anyone step back and think, oh wait a second, there have been people traveling safely on this road at 60mph as we surveyed them. Getting back to my original thought, don't go out and break the laws of the road on purpose.....(unless no one is around right?) But if you do get harassed by the police, (I don't care what anybody says traffic officers always harass you) you CAN fight back and you can stand up for yourself. We have a government which is created by the people for the people. Even though it might not seem like it anymore. Quick side note: I had a teacher once that lectured that if we don't fight for our rights, then they will slowly dwindle away until nothing is left, if everyone just sat back and let police officers cite them year after year, all of our freedom and our right to a fair trial will be extinguished, suffocated as the fire we will then forth know as the fire that represented our freedom.

The good news, I'm not always negative:
I will always contend that police officers are people that have a egotistical complex, people that think they are above the law, people that should be finding better things to do then pull people over for u turns or speeding. There are drug dealers, and homicidal criminals out there ya know? However, I have had ONE experience with law enforcement which was of good quality. I was pulled over once as I was driving home from the bookstore, and the officer asked me for my liscense, looked at it, then asked me for my registration and insurance. Because I keep both of those documents in my wallet, I pulled them out quickly for him and handed it to him. He looked at it, and said to me, "You know what, I'm just going to let you go, because you have your stuff where it should be, ready." I just said thank you, and took my things back and drove off. That was a good experience, so I'm not always negative.

Conclusion: Don't get so upset about getting a ticket, my father told me once when I got my first speeding ticket that I shouldn't worry about it, and that it happens to everyone sometime in their life.

How free of a country do we live in where I have to pay money to drive fast? We already pay taxes of all sorts don't we. If there was any kind of legitimate fee involved with driving other then processing or construction then it would be taken out in income taxes or sales taxes. Keep your head up because if we all fight for our rights, we can set things right.

Eyger

Haha, I feel like bumping my own article....

2005EM2

iTrader: (7)

good job. +1 for you!

2005EM2

iTrader: (7)

and bump! lol

LT2004ever

iTrader: (2)

yea it was a nice read, but cops use LIDAR not RADAR, and they will argue to kingdom come about the differences, trust me. I sat and argued for like 30min, at a steak and shake one night about it lol

also, pulling over as far to the shoulder, both hands on wheel unless you cut on dome lights, and caution lights if its at night, then back on the wheel. Also NEVER CRY!!! unless u have a vagina.

Eyger

Ha ha YAY! Thanks dude.

I just want everyone to know that you seriously can fight and win traffic tickets. Because to the state, it's just a bunch of paperwork!

Eyger

Yeah I argue until i'm blue in the face about stuff like that.
Ha ha LIDAR, it's true!

mmmm steak.

LT2004ever

iTrader: (2)

danget now im hungry!

Eyger

Quick off topic story: I had a steak at the Delmonico in Las Vegas, best steak I ever had, and now all other steaks seem bland!

Back on topic, cops are bored, so they give out tickets and hope you don't fight them.

2skys1imit3

iTrader: (2)

whoa...that's a long read...may come in handy

LT2004ever

iTrader: (2)

^^ pleas u are in a civic... they will catch you before u redlined, and was only going 30mph

well unless u were swapped and turboed or swapped and Supercharged, or swapped and built

awang

iTrader: (1)

you guys wanna hear some BS? i got a speeding ticket for allegedly going 44 in a 35 construction zone, and I was out of it in a 40 zone... last day of the month too. anyways, they wrote the ticket on the street of the construction, and at that street, i had been stopped at a redlight. saying my weak **** d17 civic went from 0-44 in 5ft is ****ing absurd... court date on oct 1 XD

chkolny

free bump for ya, good arguments made here,
this info may come in handy some day, thanx!

DsevenEm2

iTrader: (6)

got pulled over two days ago because i was caught on radar..during traffic..in a consturction zone going 85 mph in a 50 which is bullshit because i had to brake in order not to hit the guy in front of me... the officer moved from 4 lanes on the left side to my right line, in front of me with his lights on and waved me down....BS!..... im fighting it this weekend.. thanks for the tips.

Eyger

Hell yeah dude!! Fight that with every last breath you have. If we don't fight out tickets, law enforcement is just going to walk alllllllllll over us.

4jacks

iTrader: (3)

I call BS !!!

The American Association of State Highway And Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is a national agencies that has very strict Highway Design Criteria.

The Manual "Geometric Design of Highways and Streets" is the national standard for the safe design of ALL roads in the united states of America.

AASHTO and the Manual (loveinly called "the green book" because it's big and green) have been around since the 60's.

Each Road is Designed by Professional Engineers. Most are private sector and have no ties to the government. In the planning stages of Road Development a certain design speed is requested. The Professional Engineer will then do his best to design that road to meet the criteria required to meet that speed.

The criteria is very involved. Stopping Sight Distance, Passing Sight Distance, Horizontal Curve Radius, Vertical Curve Data, Slopes of the road, Super Elevation of the road and of course traffic volumes of the surronding area and predicted traffic on the new road. Speeds of existing traffic are not measured.

The Engineer will then do his best to design the road to the requested design speed. Very Rarely will he have to go back and request a lower design speed, and ussualy for a really trick site constraint.

The design speed is based on a vechile safely driving on that road, going around corners, interacting with other traffic, ability to stop should they have to.

Once the road is reviewed and approved, the road is constructed and a speed limit is posted. The posted speed limit is always FIVE (5) mph under the design speed, not 10 under the average speed of traffic.

This is why most of our speed limits end in 5. 25 mph, 35 mph, 45mph, 65mph, etc. Although even numbers are also around (40mph, 50mph)

Sometimes (like in Texas) once a road is open, the community will request the speed limit be raised, if that gets approved they ussually just up it 5mph, so that it still meets all the criteria of the Design Speed.

So anyway, thanks for posting but I call BS on that part.

greeen01civic4d

iTrader: (7)

dsevenem2, did u win ur ticket, or what, no update???

ragdoll66

Nicley done! +1

RedHonda00

that sucks

TakumiFujiwara

Here's one for ya: how do you fight a ticket in which you were estimated going 30km over the limit and he estimated you on that in comparison to a car beside you that you "ripped" past? haha.

SEN_ONE

iTrader: (11)

Haha, whoever wrote this just don't like cops. All the doughnut jokes can tell you that. My thing is that the writer stated "Speeding is a victimless crime."
Sounds like he's the jackass (he called the judges jackass')that can't accept the fact that he got caught breaking traffic laws. From the sounds of it, he should have had his license taken away, if it hasn't already. If you get caught, you get caught, but I wouldn't want the person that can't drive able to go even faster if they had higher speed limits.

Eyger

Awesome, thanks for correcting me about that. i was just going on word of mouth. So the information most likely got messed up as it was wispered down the lane.

Eyger

Heh, well you do have the freedom of speech to call me whatever you want. The honest answer is, yes I don't like cops. Through my entire life, I've only ever had ONE encounter with a police officer that was pleasant. I'm a nice guy, I don't start trouble. But every officer that's interacted with me has an condescending attitude. Who knows why. In regards to the comment you wrote about the fact that I couldn't accept the fact that I got caught breaking the law is superficial at best in my opinion. I've been pulled over for speeding, when I wasn't at all. They just SAY you're speeding so they can pull you over and try to get you for something else. I still have my license... because I know my rights. They say driving is a privilege, I say it's a associative designation to obtain power. It's a privilege that comes with rules. I could go on, but it wouldn't be worth it.

Thank you for your reply in my thread.

Jza

The radar thing is tricky, the cop may be headed in the opposite direction, but his buddy you didn't see down the road could of radared you and radioed ahead.

Piggies team up, sometimes.

CCW720

Before I moved to Durham I got a ticket in my piece of crap 87 accord. The cop was from some small town outside of the town I live in. We were on one of the busiest streets in town on a Saturday night. I was at a stop light and the cop pulls up behind me. The light turns green and I go accelerating faster than the people in the other two lanes. The speed limit is now 50 mph and as we come to another stop light, which has just turned green and people are slowing down to turn... I get over (turn signal and everything... a cop is behind me) I'm doing 55 mph (thats the only 5 increment that is on the '87 speedometer and its orange) Now I'm in the middle lane and the police officer behind me is a good 2-1/2 to 3 car lengths behind me. We go through another light, which has just turned green, and no one is in the left lane so I get over again... the cop follows me again and as we pass through the fourth light he turns on his light and pulls me. Now at this point I'm thinking why is he pulling me over... I pull into a parking lot and he comes to the car and asks me if I knew why I was pulled over. I say no and he tells me I was doing 65 mph in a 50mph zone. I tell him thats total BS and I would like to see his radar. He says he didn't catch me on radar but used his speed estimating technique that they teach them. All the while I'm furious that he is the biggest liar on the planet right now and he knows he's getting away with it too. I argue with him a little bit more and he threatens to arrest me and put me in jail over the weekend so we can go see the magistrate. Before I leave another one of his buddies pulls up and starts to get out of the car, so I just give up and leave. I talk to the DA and he just drops it to five miles over and doesn't even want to hear my story. I was going to fight the ticket in court but my brother and his wife are both lawyers and advised me otherwise. I pay the ticket the day of the court date and move to Durham.

jae510

nice read...i got a ticket doing a 85 on a 70 and it was raining hard, i coudn't talk straight to the officer because i was high as hell hehehe, i'm just glad it was raining that night. $135 ticket though.

wallabee09

I guess I'm the lucky one here. I get pulled over at least once a week for speeding early in the morning but due to the fact that I have my military I.D. in front of my license they ask me all sorts of questions about the military and let me slide each time. But good advice.

Bump!

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

good stuff, gotta have respect for military

m3gach33zy

So I have a question about cop radars for our cars. They sell them everywhere and they seem legal to me. But whenever my friends get pulled over they yank the thing off the window and toss it on the floor like they weren't using it. They don't seem illegal or anything but is it more likely that a cop will give you a ticket because your using one of those?

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

^a laser/radar detector is legal.
a laser/radar jammer or scrambler is not.