Fighting a Ticket

Dude, you were wrong. You got caught. It happens. Pay the fine and try not to fuck up any more.

 

I'm inclined to agree with boots (Dear God, help us all!) on the stop sign situation. Though I can't say I wouldn't try to fight it if the cop was like yours.

As for speeding in east Cleveland (Doesn't has the same ring as "South Central LA"): Dude, you got no case. How far away is Cleveland? Could you sign up for one of those one-day traffic classes?

On a side note: If you ever get pulled over and the cop gives you the option of the seat belt violation or the speeding violation, always take the seat belt. My traffic school instructor said the seat belt violation isn't considered a moving violation and won't put points on your record. Not to mention it's cheaper.

 

Unless you are just trying to keep points off your license, hiring a lawyer will be more expensive than paying the fine. Just suck it up and do it. You COULD wait to see if the cop doesn't show, but trust me, he'll show, and then you'll have to pay court fees.

Best move: just pay it and move on.

 

Those speed camera tickets don't result in points, because they can't prove who was driving.

 

not to pile on bucknutty but mistake of law is almost never a defense to anything. the defense would be if it was a mistake of fact, which didn't happen here. in other words if you thought you were speeding - even intentionally speeding - because your speedometer said you were above the limit, you could get off.

more realistically in this situation, if you could show that the camera that caught you wasn't reliable - say it hadn't been tested or recalibrated in a while - you could show that the government has no proof that you were speeding. if you wanted to have some fun maybe you could use your FOIA powers to request documentation on the camera and hope it shows something.

 

Here's a trick that's worked before: call the court and tell them you have an important conflict at the time of your court date and would like to change it. They often will accomodate this.

If they give you a new date, it substantially increases the likelihood that the officer won't appear because cops normally write all their tickets for sessions that know they're already scheduled to appear at, they frequently blow off, have conflicts, or don't know about sessions that only involve 1 of their tickets. If the cop FTAs, the ct is required to dismiss the ticket. But if the cop does appear, you're probably screwed.

 

I'm fighting this thing. It's the points that I care about. Either I hire someone, or represent myself. Either way, I'm there!

 

Sounds as if the cop knew it was a BS assignment and is cutting you a break. Tough to prove he deliberately misspelled the street but it's generally enough to get it dismissed, I believe. just like getting your license plate wrong. Otherwise why would be specifically tell you to read the back? There's an out there and he's directing you in the direction.

Not all cops are dicks.

 

Here's one for this thread. (I hope I can explain this well enough so that you understand the visuals and geography.)

Spouse and I were leaving a ballgame a few weeks ago. We were pulling out of a parking place on the right side of a three-lane street. The parking place was close to an intersection with a four-lane street so we were not able to make it all the way across to the left lane to be able to make a left turn on the arrow like we had hoped to be able to do. When the left turn arrow came on though, the driver in the left lane signaled, however, that he was letting us turn in front of him. Now, as we go to make this turn, there are some pedestrians in the crosswalk all the way over on the far side of the FOUR-lane street. I want to emphasize here that, while these pedestrians were technically in the crosswalk when my spouse made the turn, the car was in the left lane of the four-lane street and the pedestrians had basically just stepped off the curb on the right side of the street and were basically 2-1/2 lanes away from our car. So, since the driver in the left lane had been nice enough to let us make the turn, we go ahead and make the turn, not thinking a thing of the pedestrians.

A couple of seconds later, a cop pulls us over. He asks us if we realize we've made a left turn from the center lane. But before we can answer he says but that's okay because the driver was letting you do it. Then he tells us that the reason he's pulling us over is because we failed to yield to pedestrians and that these stupid pedestrians shouted to the cop that he should come track us down. He then asks about drinking (since presumably we've just come from the ballgame) and proceeds to ask my spouse to get out of the car so he do the quicky field sobriety test with the light. (We hadn't been drinking.)

Okay, I've been to a TON of ballgames and seen cars get WAY closer to pedestrians. Trust me, we were nowhere near these pedestrians. And, not that this is the important thing but just to explain, I guarantee if we had waited for these pedestrians to come all the way across and cross the people behind the nice driver who was letting us in to make the turn would have been laying on their horns mad because nobody was turning.

I just think this cop so the mildest of aggressive moves, saw we were leaving a ballgame, hadn't met his quota and thought he could get a DUI. I can't believe my spouse wasn't able to get of the ticket, a $400 ticket. I've gotten out of WAY worse speeding tickets no problem. Oh, and then even though the cop said the left turn from the center lane was okay since the person was letting us to do it, he included it on the ticket. What an a$$.

So we're fighting this insane ticket. What does SportsJournalists.com think?

I liked the rescheduling trick so the cop doesn't show and the lawyer idea.

 

Could you go to traffic school? Where I live, you can go to traffic school once during a calendar year without losing points on your license.

(I thought I read through everything, but if someone already suggested this, I apologize).

 

$400 for failing to yield to peds in a crosswalk?

 

Ouch...sorry