How to fight traffic tickets and win!

[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.

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[Eyger]

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

[2005EM2]

good job. +1 for you!

[2005EM2]

and bump! lol

[LT2004ever]

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]

Originally Posted by LT2004ever

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

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

mmmm steak.

[LT2004ever]

Originally Posted by Eyger

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

mmmm steak.

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]

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

[LT2004ever]

^^ 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]

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 fuck d17 civic went from 0-44 in 5ft is fucking 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]

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]

Originally Posted by DsevenEm2

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.

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.