Has anyone successfully contested a traffic ticket

In My Humble Opinion
21

I got a ticket that pissed me off enough to fight. I pulled up to a green light, but all the adjacent lanes were stopped, and cross traffic was moving through. Turns out it was a funeral procession, but I couldn’t tell at the time (in an age when many cars have running lights particularly, I’d say this tradition is downright stupid). Anyway, there was a cop car in the lane next to me. When the procession had passed, I hit the gas, and went through the intersection as the light turned yellow. Cop pulled me over and gave me a ticket for “failing to see it was safe before proceeding.” I think she felt like me making the light while she just sat there challenged her authoriteh or something. It was totally ridiculous.

Now, evidently this ticket is almost universally reserved for cases where an accident occurred. I went in to fight it, and the judge asked in a puzzled tone, “Was there not an accident in this case?” Knew we were on the right track then. So the officer’s sum total of damning testimony was that I’d “gunned” my engine to go through a yellow light. Not Guilty.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that my co-worker represented me for free, and happened to have gone to law school with the judge. I highly recommend that deal, if you can arrange it!

22

Onced, during a blizzard, I slid through a major (photo patroled) intersection as the light changed from yellow to red (puting on my brakes would have put me into an uncontrolled spin). I decided to challenge this, and when I showed up there were about 8 other people there for exactly the same reason, at the same intersection on the same date.
The judge let us off with a warning to “Drive according to road and weather conditions”… still, it cost me half a day’s pay.

23

No, but I can share a story of my naiveté that may or may not help anyone who’s never done it or tried.

First I contested it by mail, which failed. I was ready to give up there, but whenever the topic of traffic tickets comes up it seems there’s always someone who says “contest it in court! If the cop doesn’t show you get off!” Of course this is true, but it led me to believe that this was something that happens all the time. As it turns out, they’re required to show up to court and their pay is docked if they don’t, so you better believe they tend to show up.

There was actually one officer of about a dozen who wasn’t present so like 3 people in a large room full of traffic miscreants got their tickets thrown out, but the vast majority of the cases went forward (including mine). I ended up wasting the whole day at the courthouse and got nothing out of it (I asked for a reduced fine but they claimed it was “already reduced”). So yeah, don’t count on them not showing up.

24

Got a parking ticket in San Francisco for “blocking the driveway.” Not blocking the sidewalk - there was plenty of room behind my car and the sidewalk. As it happens it was my driveway, so I mailed in an explantion with proof that the car was mine (registration with address) and proof that it was my residence (utility bill, DL). Got a notice of dismissal.

Not sure why the parking cop didn’t run my plates - residents in SF do this all the time.

25

My wife has gone 2 for 2 in contesting tickets. In both cases, the ticketing officer didn’t show up.

She also contested a parking ticket once and we never heard about it again. So hopefully that’s a victory, too.

26

Well, I can’t tell you how to do it, only how I did it…which probably won’t work for you.

First, the cop that wrote my ticket didn’t show up, but that doesn’t matter, because in Washington State, where I lived at the time, another cop could read his statement and that was good enough. Sort of sucks because you’re unable to argue any points with the actual guy that gave you the ticket, but I digress…

Anyway, I got out of the ticket by having a really, really, no, realllllly, stupid judge. He couldn’t picture what stop sign I ran (and I did run it by the way…long story…not now). The cop told him where it was. The judge still couldn’t figure it out, even though it was a fairly small town that probably had four total stop signs. After a while, he asked me if I knew what stop sign the cop was talking about?! Well, I was there when I got the ticket, so yeah, I had a pretty good idea. So I said, “No, I’m not sure where he’s talking about.” The judge said, “Me either,” and threw the case out.

So you could try that.

27

Yup, twice.

It helps that a lot of the parking stuff is outsourced to private companies round here. I asked “What is your proof of this alleged violation?” and the answer was “The traffic guy entered it into his portable computer at the time”, which I followed up with “Yes, but what is your proof of this alleged violation?”

Both times they dropped the ticket, although said it was a “goodwill gesture”.

28

As an attorney I’ve won a few:

What are the officers credentials? When was he last certified? How was he certified? What is radar? How does it work? How does it not work? When was the device last certified? Does he have the certificate? Does he have its calibration record? Where was he positioned? etc.

Speeding tickets tend to get very important when the police find 3 handguns, 1/4 kilo of cocaine and a drunk driver. (Not a true story).

29

Years ago, my mother pled “half guilty, your honor”. The judge told her she had to plead one way or the other and that ‘half guilty’ was not an option. So she launched into an explanation as to why she was guilty of improper backing, but not guilty of the other charge (don’t remember what it was), hence she was only “half guilty”.

The judge nodded his head and told her that if he heard that plea again, he would find her in contempt; so she plead guilty. And he levied half the fine against her.

30

I represented a friend in traffic court for speeding about a month ago. The commissioner took it under submission and we won. I thought he hated our case. TSS, speeding ticket lawyer.

I have another friend who was ticketed for talking on a cell phone when she wasn’t. She brought in her phone bill to prove that she hadn’t used her phone around that time and won. My suggestion to use the phone bill, but I wasn’t there.

31

I’ve “successfully” (depending on your definition) contested many moving-violations (hey, I was young and speedy, I don’t get tickets anymore)…simply by pleading not-guilty. In every single instance (I’m guessing 8-ish times), I ended up (a) paying a lower fine, and (b) avoiding points on license. This was in Connecticut.

Generally speaking, getting a ticket fully thrown-out is unlikely to happen. Its basically a mill, and while you’re technically entitled to…well, not a jury trial, but some semblance of a trial…ultimately, the Officer’s word will always prevail over yours, even if the officer’s word is merely what’s on the ticket.

If you try this, DEFINITELY check your local laws, because I understand this varies from state-to-state. But yes, I’ve benefited from contesting tickets.

32

Nobody suggested that she was using someone else’s cell phone?

33

I’ve contested a number of traffic tickets, and ‘won’ every time.

Dress nice
Be respectful
State your case calmly
Hope for the best

The last time I fought a ticket it was for an illegal u-turn in the city. My intention was to say “Yes, I did it. Please take pity on me and wipe the ticket so I don’t get crushed on my insurance - I’m just a poor working stiff trying to get by”. I didn’t even get a chance to talk, though. The Clerk asked me a couple of questions (do I come into the city often, was I familiar with the intersection) which I answered honestly. She told me I looked like a nice young man, an that she was going to let me off the hook, and to have a nice day.

Definitely worth the time to go in there.

Previous tickets, contested and won: speeding, speeding, driving without insurance, speeding. A couple others.

34

Usually, you don’t see a judge, you see a clerk of the court, or Clerk Magistrate.

35

Even if the prosecuting officer had thought of it, just suggesting isn’t enough. Traffic court is pretty kangaroo, but to suggest something you have to have a basis for it. If she testifies that she had only one cell phone and she wasn’t using it and had the bill to prove it, the only way around that would have been for the officer to have seized the phone she was supposedly using and noted the phone number. He would have to search the car to make sure that there is no other cell phone, in short, he would have had to anticipate the defense. As the friend of mine assured me that the charge was absolutely untrue, this would have been impossible. I believed her. So did the judge.

36

I got a ticket once for rolling through a stop sign. It was buried in snow so that only about 3 - 4 inches were sticking out the top. I was going very slow looking for addresses at night.

In court, the cop agreed with my statement that the sign was 90% buried. The judge found me “Guilty, with no fine” and said that I “should have known there was a sign there.” It was in a small town I had never visited before.

Humph.

37

As others have mentioned, if possible, always show up for your court date. At the very least, if the officer doesn’t show, you get out of it. Money back, no points on the license.

I was taking my dad to pick up a rental car on a Friday morning. I was unfamiliar with the road and the area. I was looking for the agency on the left, and I ended up pulling into the car rental agency with a cop with his lights on behind me. Turns out, I was going 31 in a school zone which was posted at 15. Not good.

But what made it worse is what I did. I had no idea the cop was pulling me over, so my dad and I got out of the car. This is a BIG NO-NO. The cop went ballistic, and I thought he was going to draw his gun. My father ditched me to get his car (bastard) and I stayed to get lambasted by the cop. I didn’t make a fuss and let him get his rage out. After he was done, I told him my side of the story, and he realized I wasn’t trying to be a prick, but was just doing my father a favor and was lost. I couldn’t argue the speeding… Since I was driving my dad in the morning, I forgot it was Friday and assumed it was Saturday. I never saw the flashing school sign, but to be fair, I wasn’t looking for them, either. When I went back up the road to turn around and see why I hadn’t seen the sign, I realized why. It was blocked from view, so unless you knew it was there and knew the school was there (the school was down in a valley, and wasn’t visible from the road), you would never see that sign. So I took some pictures.

Before the cop left, he told me to fight the ticket. The fine was well over $400, and since I was over double the speed limit while in a school zone, I hit the lottery for all things bad. Points were doubled, fine was doubled, etc, etc. The end result would be that I’d lose my license for a year, and have to take a class. My insurance would also balloon through the roof. So, for doing my father a favor, it was going to cost me well over 2 grand and a year without a car!

So I fought the ticket. I was armed with my pictures, and a few other people came into the court with tickets from the same area. They live in that area and said it was a known speed trap, and the same cop gives out tickets and always shows up at court. Even with my pictures, I figured I was sunk. But he never showed. The judge waited 30 minutes for him, and he never showed. When it was my turn, I was in front of the judge and he read me the riot act. Told me how lucky I was and blah blah blah. He was right.

I was not going to fight the ticket, but decided to because the officer told me to. I think he did that specifically so he could not show up and let me off. I never saw that guy again, but I’ve always wanted to thank him for giving me a pass. It could have caused me a major problem in my ability to get to/from work. So the moral is, always go to court and fight it. You never know what might happen to get you out of it.

38

Same. The week after I did so, the bushes around where the cop likes to hide were cut down to a foot high, from over 12 feet!

The secret is documentation.

39

Wow I’m surprised; that’s pretty much “driving too fast for the conditions” by definition.

A friend of mine was just cited for reckless driving in a similar situation :eek:. It was strange. The cop acted as if he had to cite him, and told him to just show up in court and it would be dismissed. It was. Seems like a waste of time and money for all parties.

40

Many years ago my father, who is a surveyor, was booked for running a red light. In court he asked lots of questions about distances, stopping distances at certain speeds, estimates of how far from X was Y and managed to “prove” that he couldn’t have stopped in time and that the light, by its preset timing, could not have been red.