Consciously, you know that you are driving the roads faster than usual. Before you knew it, you’re pulled over. The sight of a police car’s flashing light is a confirmation that you’ve been too fast in. When you are pulled over, you can just pay the fine to save you the time, or you also have the option to contest your speeding ticket.
Drivers fight a speeding ticket if its impact is greater than its financial drawback. While admittedly most of the speeding tickets being issued are valid and appropriate, should you deem it worth fighting for, here are some steps that you can follow to fight the speeding ticket and build a case. Here are the steps that you can use as a reference to want to fight your speeding ticket:
1. Never declare your guilt: When you attend your court hearing. Your traffic police will use your admission and declaration of guilt. Do not give them that advantage. Never admit your guilt, but don’t ever lie as well. When you are contesting the ticket, you have the problem of providing proof to the judge. You must be able to present substantial and reasonable evidence to convince them for the case to be dismissed or the charges reduced at least.
You also must remember that not because you signed your citation means that you are admitting guilt. It is more of an acknowledgment that you confirmed and received the document. The officer who reprimanded you should also tell you this info.
2. Check for any citation errors: Be thorough and check any possible blunders in the citation and check the timeline for when you can file the dispute. This one is different for every jurisdiction. You will need to wait for the scheduled court date before you can dispute your ticket. Note that there is a possibility that the judge may dismiss your current ticket if errors where reported against the citation. However, an error doesn’t automatically mean a dismissal. It is just worth mentioning during the hearing.
You also won’t be looking for typographical errors because opportunities in spelling have no effect on the final decision. The information that you need to ensure would be the (a) time and date of the incident, (b) the location where you were apprehended, (c) the speed limit that was posted, (d) the information of your car, and (e) the written summary or incident report of the officer.
3. Your honest reason counts: Yes, you were speeding, but what is your reason for needing to go above the acceptable speed limit. If you think that your reason is valid, then it is worth mentioning it to the judge. Potentially reasons can be but not limited to the following reasons: (a) Medical emergencies, (2) preventing a potential accident, (3) a car is stalking you, (4) the speed limit sign is blocked by a natural object like a tree, or (5) the signage for the speed limit is missing.
If you can get further evidence to support your reason, invite a witness or secure a 3rd party documentation, then it would work for your advantage. Reasons though like rushing to go to work or simply not knowing the legal and acceptable limit would most likely cause for the case to push forward.
4. Challenge the radar gun proof: The officer who caught you most likely used a radar gun to monitor your driving speed. When stopped, the officer should be able to advise you how he was able to measure your speed and the number of times he or she checked to confirm that you were speeding.
The radar gun that was used specifically used to measure your speed and declared you to be speeding should be properly calibrated. If it is not, there might be some discrepancies on the speed that was measured.
All police officers should complete all necessary procedures to ensure that the radar gun is measuring and displaying the correct speed. Prior to the court date, gather as much information as possible about the specific radar gun that was used to capture your speeding. The brand, make and model information would come in handy. It would also be better if you have the maintenance records of the gun. If the information is not updated or another radar gun’s information was used, you can contest the accuracy of the radar as well as the reliability and truthfulness of the captured speed.
5. Get a traffic attorney: For complex and tricky situations or if you were issued a ticket on a different state, you should get someone to represent you. Instances when you need one would be if you were charged with a speeding ticket and involved in an accident.
A word of advice since the speeding ticket has been issued, make sure that in the future, you become better at not being caught. You can do that by using a radar detector, an electronic device that would give you a heads-up if your speed is being monitored by the traffic police’s radar gun. It can give you fair warning both visually and audibly when it senses the police radar waves that the police radar emits. It can help you prevent getting a speeding ticket because you can already reduce your driving speed real time and successfully pass the acceptable speed that your state requires. Don’t worry, radar detectors cannot be detected by law enforcers because it does not emit any signals and is considered as a passive system.
