How I Successfully Fought Off a Traffic Ticket

There are many websites and books about how to fight traffic tickets. I've never used any of them so I can't speak to their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. They may work for you. I suspect, somehow, that most of those sites are useless and are there more to take your money than provide you any meaningful help. Books, on the other hand, are easy to vet by either going to a library or bookstore to peruse.

If you're looking for specific advice on how to fight your ticket, you've come to the wrong place. First, the validity of a traffic ticket depends very much on the facts of the case, such as what you allegedly did, the piece of road you allegedly did it on, etc. Obviously, I wasn't there when you got your ticket so I don't know your particular facts. Second, a lot of the law and procedures related to traffic court and traffic tickets depends on the county and state in which the ticket was issued. I do not nor do I claim to know all of the law or procedures of all counties and states in the US. Third, if I put out specific advice on how to fight tickets, that advice will quickly become outdated. Google will inevitably index this page and cops can read and use Google just as well as you or I.

However, all is not lost. I can tell you what I learned during the 5 months I fought my ticket. If you use a bit of intellect, what I learned will hopefully help you in your case. Again, this advice worked for me, but I cannot, do not, and will not guarantee that any or all of it will work for you.

At the outset:

1. Even if you win, fighting a traffic ticket is likely to be money-loser given the time required. If you have other things to do (e.g. school, work, family-obligations, etc) and you have the option to do traffic school, you may want to consider just going to traffic school. If you win your ticket, all you get back is the fine you paid. It may depend on the county and state, but there was no interest added to my refund.
2. It may also depend on the state and/or county, but where I live in California, those who are eligible for traffic school are given a choice: go to traffic school or fight the ticket. If you fight the ticket and lose, you generally cannot then go to traffic school. I'm not certain (because I won my ticket), but if you fight a ticket and lose, I believe you automatically get a point on your driving record and your insurance goes up. Please check with your individual insurance carrier to be certain for your own individual case.

During the traffic stop:

1. Successfully fighting a traffic ticket begins the instant you are pulled over. Stay calm and turn your brain into a tape recorder and remember as much detail as you can everything the officer says or does. After the officer leaves, write down absolutely everything that happened in the order that it happened. Whenever possible, quote the officer directly.
2. I would not get mad at or start cursing at the officer. First, I doubt it will help you get out of a ticket. Second, the officer is more likely to remember you and what you did.
3. If the officer accuses you of a specific offense (e.g. speeding, tailgating, etc), do not agree or admit to it because you've then given the officer something to use against you in court. You can say something else, like "Oh, I didn't know that."
4. Do sign the ticket when it is presented to you because some departments have a rule that says that if you don't sign your traffic ticket, you can be arrested. No joke. The officer will usually say something like "Sign here to promise that you'll take care of this ticket. Signing does not mean you agree with the ticket."
5. Depending on where you live, do also keep your hands visible at all times (especially if the officer lets you out of the car) so that he doesn't have an excuse to shoot you.

After the traffic stop:

1. As I said before, do write down absolutely everything that happened. Include all the detail you can think of, such as distances and elapsed times. This may take an hour or two (or three or four), depending on how much you remember.
2. The ticket you get will generally reference a specific section of your state's vehicle code that the officer claims you violated. This is generally the only section you need to worry about. You may have actually violated several vehicle code sections, but it only matters what section or sections the officer writes on your ticket because those sections are the only ones you're charged with breaking. Many states put their Vehicle Code online so go find the section you were charged with violating and read it. California's vehicle code can be found here. I have only read California's Vehicle Code so the code for your state may look different. Some Vehicle Code sections are short and easy to understand. Others are more complicated. You may need to read your section several times or have someone else read it to you to have it make complete sense. Regardless, you do absolutely need to read and understand your particular section because if and when you decide to go to court, the fundamental question the judge will look at is 'Did your behavior conform with or violate the vehicle code section cited?' Everything else -- whether the officer behaved unprofessionally, whether your stop was racially-based, whether the ticket was filled out properly, etc -- is largely irrelevant in traffic court.
3. Take what you understand your section to mean and compare it to what you did. If you think what you did was legal, then go fight. If you don't think you can win, then don't, unless you're willing to take the point on your record. No one else (least of all me) can make this decision for you.
4. Vehicle code sections -- like laws generally -- are drawn up in the abstract by legislators and can sometimes be vague or use unclear wording. Depending on the time you have, a trip to your local county law library may help you decide whether to fight your ticket. A lot of counties will have a law library of some kind that is open to the public. It's often in a county courthouse or you can use Google to find it. If you go, what you can look up are previous cases that have applied or interpreted the vehicle code section you're charged with breaking. This will allow you to really decide if what you did conformed with the vehicle code section you're charged with breaking.You may need a librarian to help you.

Going to court:

1. The actual way to initiate a ticket contest depends on the county or state in which you live. In my case, everyone who gets a traffic ticket gets a summons in the mail a few days later that tells you what the fine amount is if you (a) decide just to pay and go to traffic school, or (b) if you decide to fight it. Check the appropriate box and mail the form back. Depending on your county or state, you may need to pay the fine right then. If you ultimately win, you will get that money back.
2. You will eventually get a traffic court date and time on which to appear and fight the ticket. If you've never fought a ticket before (and I imagine most of you have not), I recommend going to traffic court before your actual court date to see how traffic court trials are conducted. When I went, I learned multiple things:
   • Whether the officer does or does not show up will depend on a number of factors: the size of his department, whether he works day shift or night shift, whether his department is having a training that day, etc. In my experience, the officer shows up a little over half the time. If your ticket is for a relatively small offense, the officer may be more likely to show up since he may think it'll be easy for him to win. If the cop is not regularly working on your court date, he may come in on his day off. Most departments will pay overtime for this so the officer may decide he wants the overtime and show up.
   • If the officer does not show up, he can request a continuance which the judge can either grant or deny, depending on the judge's philosophy and/or mood. If the judge grants the continuance, you get to come back on another day when the officer will actually be there.
   • If the officer shows up, he will often be in uniform (badge, gun, etc). (Perhaps this makes him look more official?). Anyway, because the officer will likely be there in full uniform, consider wearing something more formal than a t-shirt and shorts.
   • The officer will generally go first and present his case as follows: "On the evening of July 15, 2009, I was on patrol in uniform and in a marked patrol car in the northeastern section of town. At 10:15 PM, I arrived at the southeast corner of the intersection of Main Street and First Avenue when I observed a green Toyota Camry on westbound Main Street travel through the intersection against a red light. I immediately activated my emergency lights and pulled the vehicle over. The driver was the defendant (i.e. you) and produced a California Driver's License that stated his name to be Alex Smith. I issued Mr. Smith a citation for running the red light."
   • Then it will be your turn to present your defense. The procedure will vary by county and state -- sometimes you can only present evidence and not argue or rebut the officer's evidence and vice-versa. However, traffic court defendants are generally laypeople acting without the help of lawyers so traffic court judges are sometimes forgiving if you mess up.
   • Some people say that fighting a ticket in traffic court is pointless because, if the officer shows up, the judge will automatically believe everything the officer says. This is not true in my experience -- judges often believe the officers because defendants (i.e. the person fighting the ticket) do such a poor job defending themselves, as I will now illustrate.
3. Some lessons on what not to do:
• Do not argue that you were not there and that the officer actually pulled someone else over. I saw someone try this and lose. Badly. I believe this is why you are required to sign your traffic ticket.
• Do not argue that you didn't see the officer. I saw an elderly lady try this and also lose.
• Do not argue that you don't know what's going on. The same elderly lady tried this too, perhaps as a backup plan?
• Do not argue that what you were doing didn't pose a danger to anyone. I saw a guy try this for driving 106 mph -- yeah, 106 mph -- on the freeway at 2 AM when it was completely empty. His license got suspended for a year. Remember, if what you did violated the code section you're accused of breaking, you will likely lose unless you can show the result  is manifestly unfair (i.e not just unfair) or that the code section is illegal. You can do either one, but not in traffic court and not without a lawyer's help.
• Do not argue that the ticket is unfair or that it tramples on your civil rights without showing why. I saw a guy do this too. He also lost.
4. Some lessons on what to do:
• Do make rational and logical arguments that are supported by the words of the code section you looked up. If you somehow managed to find a legal case that supports you, refer to that and argue that your situation is just like what happened in that case. (I'd be really surprised if an officer brought a legal case to traffic court). The examples you just read in #3 are humorous, but they all fall into the category of 'Really? What the hell made you think that would be even the least bit convincing?' I'm sure traffic court judges hear crazy-assed irrational arguments all day so if you make a rational and logical argument that makes sense, you may win.
• Do point out flaws in the officer's case. For example, if the officer says he saw you run a red light because he was parked at a particular corner, you can point out (if it's true) that it is physically impossible to see the intersection from that corner.
• Also, do remember that the officer is more likely than not a professional police officer. As a result, professional police officers are expected to do certain things, like take proper notes and make proper diagrams. If the officer has made a really dumb mistake, then point it out because a professional is not supposed to make really dumb mistakes.
• Do call the judge "your honor". Depending on the county and state, the traffic court judge may not actually be an actual judge, but rather a bureaucrat called a "Traffic Commissioner". Traffic commissioners often wear robes like judges so I don't think it can hurt to fluff their ego a bit.
• Above all else, do stay calm. If you're like me at all, your brain works better when you stay calm.
5. This is so important that it gets its own number separate from the others: I highly recommend requesting discovery of the notes the officer took of the traffic stop, meaning that you can see what notes the officer took of your encounter with him. I would guess that most people who get traffic tickets do not do this. The request process differs from county to county and state to state, but I would guess that you can request discovery of the notes before deciding whether to fight your ticket. If you see that the officer has a strong case against you, you may not want to fight the ticket. If you see the officer's case is pathetically weak, then you may decide fighting is a good idea. I don't know what county or state you live in, but there are two places I'd start my discovery request. First, go to the clerk's office at the traffic court and ask. Depending on the county/state, there is sometimes just a "Court Clerk's Office" so go there and ask. Second, NOLO Press puts out a book called something like "How to Fight Your Ticket" which you can often find in public libraries or the county law library I mentioned earlier. In the back of the NOLO Press book, there are some forms and one of them (I think) is a discovery request form. Regardless of which method you use, requesting discovery generally requires filling out a simple form, making some copies of it, and giving those copies to (a) the traffic court clerk, (b) the officer's department, and (c) sometimes the county district attorney. (Again, this may differ depending on your county/state). The officer's department then will ask him for his notes, make a copy of those notes, and give them to you. There may be a small fee involved to cover copying costs.
6. The officer's notes will generally be very, very crude. They'll contain a rough diagram of what he saw you allegedly do (run a stop sign, etc) and some brief written notes. (Note: some of these notes may be in abbreviated form or police vernacular so you may have some trouble understanding them at first). If you wrote any sort of detailed report after you were pulled over, I all but guarantee that your notes will be more detailed than the officer's. In my case, I personally noticed that the officer's notes covered what lead to the traffic stop in the first place, but almost nothing about what happened after I was pulled over. Remember, it may take several months (5 in my case) to get from traffic stop to traffic court. In the interim, the officer is still working his regular job and still pulling people over. In that same time period, hopefully you have not gotten pulled over again so there's a chance the officer may be more confused than you, especially if you wrote a spectacular report after you were pulled over.

Here are the notes my officer took. I purposely made the picture small since the most illustrative part here is the diagram and not the actual text the officer wrote. And to show you what you get if you win, on the right below is a picture of the check the county sent me refunding all of the fine I had to pay initially. Yes, I cashed the check, but a copy is framed on my wall.

That's it. Traffic court is really not that big a deal (except, of course, for the financial consequences of getting a point on your record). Other than that, do remember that unlike other courts, you will not be facing off against a lawyer. (Depending on the county or state, you can bring your own lawyer if you want, but the cost of hiring one is often more than the ticket fine itself.) You will face off against the officer who pulled you over and he will serve as "pseudo-prosecutor". A cop has some legal training, but I would guess only a small bit of it is relevant for prosecuting offenses. For most intents and purposes then, the cop is a lay person and so are you so the odds are not stacked against you as much as you would think.

Thursday, October 01, 2009 02:31:18 PM