How to Fight Speeding Tickets
It was a little traumatic watching those swirling lights in the rear view mirror. It was more traumatic having the officer hand you your ticket and inform you of the court date. Mistakes do happen with speeding tickets and the fine can be expensive. If you feel you’re in the right, it might be a good idea to fight your speeding ticket.
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Instructions
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Determine whether or not you need a lawyer. If you are simply charged with speeding or another minor violation, representing yourself is probably okay. You may, however, choose to hire a qualified traffic attorney, if you believe you can achieve maximum results with one.
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Learn the court’s procedure for the traffic court you attend. You will probably be offered a convenient plea bargain to reduce fines or eliminate another ticket. If you plead not guilty, you will forego any of these plea deals.
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Look to see if there are any errors on the ticket. Courts will often forgive minor errors such as a misspelled name. However, if the officer accidentally put the wrong statute on your ticket, you may have grounds for dismissal on a technicality. You might want to keep this kind of thing a secret until your trial.
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Prepare your substantive defense. If you come to court to fight your speeding ticket, the officer who issued your ticket will often be in attendance to testify against you. Judges often believe the account of a police officer over any citizen, so you should have as many facts as possible on your side. Bring witnesses to court, make diagrams and take pictures of the area in which you received the ticket. Look to see how many other speeding tickets were given in the area. Part of your defense could be that the speed limit signs are not as clear as they should be.
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Testify clearly before the traffic court judge. While you may be angry or scared, you should hide all of that and appear as the honest person you are. Wear nice clothes to show further respect for the court.
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