There have been, over the years, some pretty pathetic defense strategies when it came to fighting a traffic ticket. Someone would read some information somewhere or use some advice from a relative or friend.
In this article we will go over the 5 most common mistakes used by people when trying to fight their traffic ticket. Use these as a guide of what not to do.
Mistake #1- Delaying the traffic court date
The rationale for this, some say, is that the longer you can delay traffic court for your traffic ticket, the likelier the chance the police officer won’t show up at your court date.
Delaying the court date will not improve your chance of having your traffic ticket dismissed.
My question is what if you do postpone your traffic court date and the officer still shows up?
This may be a little known fact, but police officers get overtime pay to be in traffic court.
Mistake #2- Request the Prosecution’s Evidence Before Trial.
By law you do have a legal right to see everything the prosecution plans to convict you with. This process is called ‘discovery’ and can be useful in a murder trial. But this isn’t a murder trial and doing so can actually hurt your case.
If you file a motion for discovery this tells the prosecution that you intend to plan a defense. In almost every case the prosecutor will make sure his case is airtight so you have virtually no chance of winning.
Do yourself a favor and don’t even contact the court about anything related to your traffic ticket. You don’t want them to know your familiar with the proceedings of traffic court.
Mistake #3- Doing too much needless research.
Who likes to spend their free time at the courthouse researching boring piles of books pertaining to law? Trust me, there is no need in doing this.
Only rarely would it be prudent to look up a law so you know how it may be worded, other than that it is needless to do this with most traffic tickets.
Mistake #4- Going after the police officers credibility
Going to traffic court with the sole purpose of making the police officer look like an idiot will backfire on you and any plan you had of getting your traffic ticket thrown out. Claiming things like, “the radar gun was faulty”, or “the officer clocked the wrong vehicle”, or “the officer singled you out”, or “the officer hasn’t had adequate training with the radar/laser gun” are all useless defenses.
Challenging the officers training of a radar gun will always draw scrutiny from the judge. He will take the officers side and will insist you ask the next question.
Lets face it, the officer has been properly trained on the use of the speed detecting device he used to give you a traffic ticket. There is no question about it. Where would you get the evidence the judge will ask for to support this claim?
Mistake #5- Showing up to traffic court unprepared.
This may be the biggest mistake individuals make when they try to fight a traffic ticket. They go into traffic court thinking they did their homework, when in reality they had no idea what they were doing, and end up paying the traffic ticket.
Those who did no research go to traffic court with the notion that they can just tell their side of the story and the judge will see things their way and dismiss their traffic ticket. Yeah right!
Look, I know the thought of going to traffic court can be a little scary for some, but this isn’t a murder trial. It’s just a simple traffic ticket. Traffic court is set up to be extremely ‘user friendly’ due to the large amounts of people who go there every day.
Avoid these five mistakes and you will have a better chance of winning your case in traffic court and getting your traffic ticket dismissed.
Want to find out more about traffic tickets, and how to beat them? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site for the the best advice and information on traffic violations.
Tags: auto insurance, automobile insurance, driving, family, law, law enforcement, speeding tickets