Got a speeding ticket, advise for court?
 

So apparently I passed a cop on my motorcycle at night who said he was doing 60 on a 40 zone when I zoomed by so gave me a ticket at 60mph. Do I have any argument here? Can I argue that he must not have been going 60 if the speed limit is 40 and he didn't have his flashers on?

Hire an attorney. Depending on city, country etc, you may be able to plea to something non-moving and save on insurance and points against your licence.

Wether you are guilty of anything or not is a seperate issue for this. Unless you know a lot about the law and workings of your locval court, you lose. I am not an attorney, this was not pro advice.

during the questioning, ask him how he measured your speed. Then ask him if he had his sirens/flashers on, then ask him how could he have been going 60 if he is a law abiding police officer. By speeding himself, he was encouraging you to speed instead of setting an example like he should be doing.

He didn't get me on radar I know that. Probably not worth getting an attorney, i don't pay much for insurance anyways and only have liability. I'll try to bring up that fact.

Get legal help or give up.
They do this for a living you dont.

Rule#1 on the road - never pass a cop :)

Tell them you like poo

if he got you at 60 without radar he prolly paced you, did he do that?

In my non-expert opinion you are usually toast. However I can say this: showing up to court is your best chance of getting the ticket voided, because (at least where I lived) if the cop who issued the ticket doesn't show up too, the ticket gets voided automatically. That's happened to me once and saved my ass $200 plus points on my license for just showing up. Of course if the cop does show up I was planning to plead guilty -- back then I was a student with no money so I could plead my case that $200 is too much for me to pay.

If its radar or laser go to court. if he does not show, ask for dismissal for lack of prosecution.

If he shows just take the no contest, give some lame excuse and pay the fine.

If he did not use laser or radar and said he paced you with the car, ask for the calibration papers for the car. Most likely he can not produce them.

If he can not, as for dismissal for lack of prosecution.

Dont fuck with the cops man.. seriously.. i got 1 week jail time for something like that :(

Go to court before your date, watch and learn what other people do that win.

Dress nice, but not rich. (Black plastic watch) Show respect to the court but show you don't have a lot of money.

good points.
but you need to ask how he clocked you..

motorcycle cops are the worse, good luck

they hate sitting in court though

take it court, set a date, then postpone the date as many times as they allow until you finally have to go

you have a good chance the officer will not show up

if he does , well just give it your best shot. You're more vulnerable on a bike, you needed to get out of his way and you thought it was a 55mph zone based on the speed the officers car was traveling

:thumbsup

I have gotten listerally 20 tickets in my life. My advice depends on the state of the violation. Some states like NY for instance, you can bargain with the cop at court. So if youre in a state like NY, go to court and when you get there, if the cop shows up, let him make a deal with you and TAKE IT. If you're in a state like CA for instance, just pay the ticket online and take traffic school if it is an option. I wouldn't bother with court in CA, especially without a lawyer. They make you pay the ticket in advance before trial, guilty until proven innocent... My friend in FL said the law there is similar to CA, you're SOL without an attorney. At least if you pay online, it is quick and painless. Ive been using methods such as crying to get out of the tickets before they are written these days. Better than trying to get it reduced in court. In this state you have a pretty much 0 chance of getting it dismissed or thrown out in court. Chances are you will end up paying the full fine and spending 2 days in court. Just be ccareful because if you have more than 2 points, your insurance nearly doubles. I am paying 250 a month. Hence, the reason I cry when I get pulled over :winkwink:

Congrats, the only other poster with a brain. Must all be youngsters...

In the end, the attorney is worth while no matter what. Period.

All I can say is good luck.

here's what i've done to win in court. in california, you have to pay the full bail amount (whatever the fine is $200-500 roughly) then set a trial date. when the trial date is getting near, you have the right in california to change your trial date.

ideally, you wanna set your trial date the nearest to a holiday as possible. the theory being that the cop (who must appear in court) will be busy. also, you can check to find out his days off during the week and schedule for that day. again, hoping that he'll be busy.
i received all this info from a defense attorney and it has worked for me in the past, if the cop does show, ask for traffic court even if they've said the window has closed on signing up.

As others have already said, unless he paced you at that speed - typically 1/4 mile distance is required in many states (15 seconds of pacing at 60 mph) - he shouldn't have written the ticket.

Regardless, however, in many states, an officer can still write a ticket for driving too fast for conditions, but often such a ticket, if challenged, often won't stick in court unless there are other circumstances involved, such as the driver causing a car crash, or hitting a pedistrian, etc...

Officers prefer writing speeding tickets, since often they're much easier to prove, and often more profitable as well; look better on an officer's performance review.

While it's true most officers will drive somewhat over the speed limit on highways so as not to impede the flow of traffic... why was the officer driving 60 in a 40 zone? That's 50% over the speed limit - that's a lot, even for an officer...

A complaint against the officer may be warranted for disregarding traffic laws - many departments will file such complaints, but do nothing ... however, some departments take such complaints seriously and will write the officer...

With that said, filing a complaint can be risky depending on the reputation of the department, and alone likely will NOT get you out of the ticket, regardless.

Did you admit to breaking the speed limit to the officer? ... if yes, that complicates matters. Even admitting to 1 mile over, even if the state provides more leeway, can still result in an enforceable ticket - never admit guilt...

To digress a bit, most officers will ask "do you know how fast you were going?" or something along those lines knowing that most drivers will admit to the speeding violation - and thus makes the ticket a practical slamdunk - officers prefer easy tickets.

Someone who knows the law, while respecting the officer (arguing with them won't work; better to say nothing / ignorance), can often result in a warning instead of a ticket in situations where the speed enforcement detail was dodgy and/or the speed was not too far over the posted limit and/or was with flow of traffic.

Ron

In my experience, if you know you were speeding, pay the ticket and move on.

The advice in this thread is highly amusing. Even those that think you have to pay your CA ticket before trial. If you know what you are doing you do not have to, but I am betting most here would not have a clue how to go about doing that.

I have friends that are cops and this is what I have been told by them. This is not actual legal advice.

1. if you admitted to them that you knew you were speeding when you got pulled over you are screwed. He will simply remind the court that you admitted you were speeding so you got a ticket and you lose. If that is the case, go in, explain you realized you were speeding but didn't think it was more than a couple miles over the limit and ask for a reduced fee. You can probably plea no contest and get a lower fine. Ask the judge for his advice and explain it was an honest mistake, Often they are pretty cool with regular people who just made a mistake. Remember they do this all day long so they have heard every excuse in the book.

2. If you didn't admit you were speeding then go in and tell them something that actually makes sense. Don't try to make them think the office coerced you into speeding because he was also speeding. He is a cop, he can drop a million reasons why he was going fast on you in a heartbeat. He will just say he was speeding up to react to a call or any number of reasons. They are not required (at least in my state) to have their lights on when they are speeding. Just tell them you were not aware of the speed limit, you thought it was 55 (or whatever max speed is for your state) and when you saw other traffic (the cop) going that fast you assumed that was the limit and that you felt you were proceeding in a reasonable and prudent manner. Reasonable and prudent is the keywords. Mention that a few times if you can. You never know, you might win, I would give you about a 5% chance of actually winning, but it is worth a try. Typically speaking unless you have a witness or some really good evidence to prove otherwise, you are caught.

3. as others have said, hope he doesn't show up. If you can find out what his days off are I would do my best to schedule the case in the middle of the afternoon on one of his days off. That way he has to take time out of the middle of his day off to go to court for you and he might just blow it off.

Don't hire a lawyer.. and don't complicate things...

Just show up for court... many cops don't bother showing for tickets..

If he shows, pay the fine and go on.. If he doesn't show, then wait for the judge to toss it and go home..

Watch your speed and these things won't happen..

they made me pay, that's all I know.

i agree i got them, paid them end of story.

yeah, me too, care to enlighten us all bdog?

I love all these armchair lawyers with horrible advice. For a simple speeding ticket, just fax it to one of the attorney's in your area that specialize in traffic matters, and nine times out of ten (at least in my vast experience as a leadfoot driver when I was younger) the attorney will be able to get the ticket reduced or tossed out. You will NOT have to appear in court unless it involved reckless driving or DUI. I never did. The attorney does not get your results through Perry Mason like arguing or jerking the court around rescheduling court dates. They usually just talk to their friends the prosecutors who they deal with every day and next thing you know you get a letter in the mail telling you what your fine and court costs were and you get away without points on your license, or a reduced penalty and less points, which is really more important than the small court fees and usually smallish attorney fees.

C.V.C 40519 and P.C 1318

I am not a lawyer but I did catch the second half of law n order the other night. Check to see if the cop had calibrated his radar that day.

why fight it.. ask for traffic school, pay a small fine, do the class and it stays off your DMV record

Both Jim Gunn and Steve Lightspeed offered good advice in this thread.

Steve is right - is it really worth even fighting? I've gotten tickets where was I doing well over 100mph. I would even bother with something where it's a regular speeding ticket unless I was facing loosing my license because of points or something.

With that said.... Hire an attorney. They are all part of a network, they make a call on your behalf, and the mere mention of you fighting it in court is usually enough to get it reduced.

Read my advice above. NEVER say anything to the cop to make him remember you. You aren't going to get off on any of those stupid technicalities that people like to invoke. The only thing that accomplishes is that the police officer remembers that you were wise guy so if your case ever does go anywhere the easy dismissal or reduced plea you would have gotten just by the simple effort of hiring a local traffic attorney may not be offered like it is to almost everyone else who got an attorney involved. Most traffic attorneys cost like $100 or so for a simple traffic matter, why wouldn't you want to do that?

Some really good advise here. I know if the cop doesn't show I have a good chance of getting off so could even ask for a new trial date if the cop shows, saying I need more time to gather evidence or get advise from an attorney. I like the advise of finding out his off day but how would i go about doing that? Just call the station? Also, filling a complaint against him sounds like it could help but i'm guessing it could be risky and probably won't do no good.

1 week in jail for a speeding ticket? how?

big deal just pay the ticket lol

hire a lawyer, in my states you can get one that is from 100 bucks or so, and you wont get points on your license

Next time flash a boob before he writes it up

What would you have to file a complaint against him for?

If you are thinking of complaining that he was already speeding, forget it. It will go nowhere, he could easily say, "I saw you in my mirror and sped up so I could pace you." Done deal, your complaint is tossed and you will most likely pay the full fine because you know he will show up now.

If you show up and he shows up and you try to get a new date you have to give them a good reason as to why you need a new date. You would have to explain in detail what "evidence" you plan to gather so there is a pretty good chance you wouldn't be granted a new date since this is just a speeding ticket.

As for finding out his days off just call the station he works out of and ask what days he is on. they may want to know why you want to know that so you would have to come up with some reason for needing to know that.

If it were me the first thing I would do is call my insurance company and ask them how much your rate would go up with this ticket on your record. If it is very little or nothing, don't bother. If it is a pretty good chunk of change do as Jim says and spend 100-200 to talk to a traffic attorney and see if they can get it tossed or reduced to something less damaging to your record. If that don't work (or you can afford that), then try to schedule your court case for a time that is least convenient for him. If he works graveyard and gets off at 7am, try to set it for 9-10 am. The last thing this guy might want to do after he gets off work is sit around a couple hours and then go to traffic court. Or set it for as early as you can on his day off. He may not want to drag his ass out of bed. Then just hope he doesn't show. You might have trouble with this because sometime the court will decide for you so you may not get the exact date and time.

In reality you will probably just end up paying, so just slow down. :)

Here in San Diego I got a ticket recently for doing 83 in a 65 mph limit. I was polite but did not admit anything when the cop asked me if I new what speed I was doing ( this is key). I accepted the ticket and then called a lawyer here in San Diego called Mr Ticket all he does is specialize in traffic tickets. I paid him $99.00 and he said thats all I needed to do.

Well, he went to court on my behalf and made a motion to postpone the hearing which they did. It was delayed 3 months, by which time the cop had written hundreds of new tickets.
The court date arrived and my attorney said the cop showed up but could not find the paperwork. Case dismissed, this saved me a $300 ticket plus $180 for traffic school. Well worth the $99.00 fee in my book ?

I pass them all the time. If they are going below the speed limit I will pass without a concern. If he pulls me over for ANY reason my argument in court was he was driving dangerously slow and I passed him and that might have agitated him.

I am not afraid of the police. So long as I don't break the law they can't touch me.

when you've already been to traffic school, (once every 18 months in cali, unless baddog says otherwise) and that ticket is going to cost you upwards of $5,000 over the next three years in higher insurance premiums, i'd say it's worth the risk of wasting a day in court, but i'm kinda old school.

i fought a 100mph (which is a criminal offense, no longer a traffic offense) speeding ticket in AZ and drove out there to fight it and i was successful.

Whatever. Pass a cop is fine... I remember speeding going 20 over the limit when I start to pass by this suspicious white minivan, and low and behold, it's got the camera, so I slam on my brakes and match my speed with theirs....and slowly creep fast enough that i'm pulling away slowly...

They were kinda pissed at me - like watching easy money fly right out the window. :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

You can go to jail for speeding? What the hell is going on?

Here in Canada, that would be outrageous!

just go in, talk to the prosecutor and see if he can reduce the fine/penalty

lol. you sound just like me. I just did traffic school a few months ago for a ticket. Damn lady cop... there was no getting out of this one.

As far as I know, I can't do traffic school again for 1+ years. I am lucky my license hasn't been revoked. Next time I definitely need a lawyer.

I don't think points in another start affect your CA license. When I got a new license, all my old points were wiped out.

You were speeding, pay the fine.