I got a speeding ticket and pleaded not guilty and my court date next week. Is the fact that I got a ticket enough evidence to prove my guilt? I have trouble imaging that an officer can say under oath that after all these months, he specifally remembers me speeding.
Policemen will usually keep some sort of written notes of their daily activity, and will refer to those notes in court when asked to testify against you. Generally, their recitation will be practiced and flawless, and there will be no way you beat the ticket. Still, it pays to show up for the court date. There’s always the chance that the officer won’t show at all, and there’s always the possibility that he will have omitted something important from his account. That happened to me once (not with speeding, but for a stop sign), that the officer recited his account of my offense, and the judge found it lacking something and declared me not guilty without my having to do a thing.
However, if the officer gives his testimony, and the judge doesn’t find any inherent fault in it, there’s almost nothing you’ll be able to say that will make the judge doubt him.
Assuming his memory to be better than your spelling and grammar, you’re better off paying the fine.
Typically, officers may refer to their daily log, which might indicate: 2245 hrs, observed blue 2002 Chevrolet 2dr, NY reg XPW2291, occupied x1, speed above posted limit (35MPH) on SR271, followed subject vehicle .5 miles at steady speed of 55 MPH, signalled vehicle to stop, operator: John F. Doe, DOB 02/02/58 NY OLN 12.345.679 Class C, no wants or warrants, expires 01/05/09. Issued citation to operator under §3371.2 (a) NY MVC. Vascar calibration certificate ref # 07/12-23.
That reference might not make the arresting officer remember you specifically, but that’s not going to be at issue. Calibration of the equipment by which your speed was clocked, and the appropriate training/certification of the arresting officer in using that equipment of speed ascertainment is.
IANAL, or a LEO, nor do I play them on radio or TV.
How do I beat a speeding ticket? Drive faster.
You can’t just fight an officer’s memory so you’ll need to challenge the ticket on some grounds of fallibility. If the ticket was made with a clocking device then challenge the accuracy. Was a calibration made after the ticket to verify it was working?
What I always wanted to challenge was the ability of a clocking device to discriminate against a car if it (the car) was vibrating. After all, the device is calibrated with a tuning fork.
That assumes the timing device is based on doppler radar.
Vascar, and calibrated speedometers for good old time/distance, do not rely on tuning forks.
You’ve gone this far, I’d suggest you hire an atty. If you show up w/ no defense you’re going to look like a jerk and you might very well pay for it.
I’m assuming that you were, in fact, speeding ant therefore guilty. If that’s the case, the best bet is usually to plead NOLO, or guilty and send a letter offering some kind of mitigating curcumstances. That will often result in a lesser fine and/or a reduction of the charge and maybe fewer points against your license.
To just plead not guilty w/o a defense is wasting a lot of people’s time and public money, most judges will not be pleased by this.
Took my answer. I would also suggest careening wildly through residential streets, driving the wrong way on freeways, sideswiping police cruisers, etc. When it’s all over, I’m pretty sure the speeding ticket will be of trivial concern.
The two times I’ve gone to court for tickets, (one for failure to yeild, the other for an illegal U turn) I explained why I thought I wasn’t at fault. The judge told me I was, but both times my fine was reduced. One was in a “points” state. The judge didn’t assign any points at that time.
Speeding is more problematic, since it’s backed by technology, rather than just being a judgment call.
At this point, your best bet is to say that you didn’t understand what it meant to plead not guilty, and that you really just want to plead guilty but explain the mitigating circumstances to the judge and hope for leniency.
If you go in with some kind of cockamamie sophistry about how the officer can’t possibly remember, blah, blah, blah, they’re going to think you’re a jerk who’s wasting the court’s time thinking he’s clever. Which is precisely what a lot of folks who demand their day in court over speeding tickets do (and, frankly, sounds like it might be what you had in mind when you entered your plea).
They hate that. I don’t recommend getting cute on them.
Another thing that may happen in some jurisdictions is that you may be able to plea bargain. Often the prosecutor will meet with the defendants (note that in most states traffic infraction hearings are technically criminal trials, though the lowest level of such), and offer a “deal” to resolve the case. For instance, on a regular speeding ticket, the prosecutor may offer a plea to an equipment violation which carries no points.
My advice (and I’m not your lawyer, and I don’t even know where your ticket is from) is to talk to other people who’ve fought tickets in the court you’ll be going to to get the lay of the land.
By far the smarter thing to do would have been to hire an atty to finalge the speeding ticket down to excessive noise, or whatever BS non-moving violation is commonly used in your jurisdiction. The atty fee + the plead-guity-to-noise fine costs far less than the speeding fine (at least for serious speeding), and results in no points & no insurance rate increase.
That’s not much help for your current case, but there will probably be a next time.
ETA: All this has to happen before the court date, at least in my experience in several jurisdictions. Once you’re in court on the hearing date, you’re sorta stuck, and definitely out of luck w/o an atty who knows the local game.
Check these sites:
Mediation, Arbitration & Collaborative Law | Nolo (nolo press has a good discussion on its site and also has a couple of books on traffic tickets).
Here’s another one, chock full of knowledgeable people:
Hop on Superman’s back.
Oh, sorry, that’s a speeding bullet…
Unless you have some relative circumstances that might persuade a judge to dismiss, or drastically lower, the charge, I’d suggest that you contact the clerk of the court and see if you can change your plea. If that’s possible, then plead NOLO Contendre, send a check for the amount of the fine/bail along w/ a polite letter explaining any mitigating circumstances.
It would help to include a statement indicating that you are remorseful and will be more careful in the future.
Even if you have a defense, I seriously doubt it’s going to do you much good unless you have an attorney. Courts are not about what you perceive as ‘fair’, they are primarily interested in the letter of the law and exceptions are fairly rare.
In and of itself? No. It’s the officers observations plus the method of speed detection that back up the observations that are evidence.
He’ll remember as much or more than you do, because he wrote a small report after you drove away (usually theres a space for it on the back of his copy of the citation). He wrote down the reason and details of the stop and wrote down what you said. Your specific description and everything is detailed from you DL info.
He’ll have refreshed his memory with this report and any other notes he took. Plus there’s a chance his squad car had a video camera w/mic. Which will also back up what he testifies to.
So if you’re trying to use this as a defense, get your checkbook out to pay the fine. You lose.
You could attempt to reschedule you court date on the officers day off or even vacation, hoping he or she doesn’t show. Here in California the judgement usually goes to the defendant if the ticketing officer doesn’t show, but YMMV. The trick is finding out when the time off is. I’ve heard it claimed to be public information if requested, but I don’t know if it’s true.
It depends. It may be the court’s practice to adjourn the hearing if the officer doesn’t show, meaing you’ll have to come into court, wait for the case to be called, and then be told to come back on another day.
Again, speaking with knowledgable, local speeders may be your best bet, considering that there are likely different procedures in each state, county, city, town, and village court around the country.
Can you say under oath that you were not speeding?
I’ve gotten three speeding tickets in the last decade and beaten two of them. Sometimes the officer is too busy to show up. Other times, he’ll show, but forget his notebook. Once in a blue moon, the judge will be open to your explanation (“Your Honor, I was practicing good defensive driving…”).
A lot of this depends on where you get your ticket. In Virginia, if you take it to court and lose, you get socked with court costs on top of the amount for the ticket. In DC, you don’t.
Can you convincingly tell a judge that you believe you were not speeding or driving inappropriately?