OK, I’m not trying to get out of a ticket here, this happened to me over 5 years ago, and the ticket I received has long since been paid. I was watching a TV show about people disputing tickets, and this one came to mind for me.
Back in college I got a speeding ticket on which the officer wrote the wrong date (I think he wrote the year wrong, but it might have been the month). Could (should?) I have been able to go to court and just say I wasn’t speeding on that day, and have that be the end of it? Or, would the court have just said that it was an irrelevant error and the real of the details remain the same.
By the way, not that it matters as far as my question goes, but I honestly* wasn’t speeding either. I really don’t know why the officer thought I was and pulled me over, I was just driving in traffic no faster than usual and no faster than anyone else. I chalked it up to either him getting the wrong guy, or just being flat out in error, but I figured that would be pretty hard to prove and my word against his. I did show up in court on my day and just pled no contest and didn’t explain myself at all, and I got the same deal the judge gave everyone else there (either pay the fine and keep the points, or no fine but lose the points).
*I also realize there are a lot people who swear they didn’t do whatever they did wrong, so there is no reason to take my word for it.