How to Fight a Traffic Ticket

We've all been there, slapped by a cop with an expensive ticket we believe is unfair. Whether you were supposedly going a little too fast, or didn't make a complete stop shelling out over a hundred dollars to keep your license always hurts. Most of us say we're going to take it court, plead our case, and hope for some way to get out of paying. Unfortunately, many of us also put off filling the necessary court forms until its too late, or just forget about it until we get that letter in the mail saying our license is going to be suspended. In the end most of us pay, and city governments all over the country know this. Some even rely on ticket payments as a from of income, racking up millions over the year in speed traps, and routine traffic patrols. In addition to this, the performance of police officers is often tied to how many arrests and citations they complete in a given time frame. Of course this in the end is no excuse for breaking the law, which even if you believe is unfair is still legitimate. The truth is, if you are a careful driver and take great pains to make sure you obey the traffic codes, tickets probably won't be an issue for you. But what about when you do obey the laws and still get a ticket? What if you run into a speed trap and you get pegged in with several cars even though you were doing the limit? Well, both of those things happened to me and I sure wasn't about to give my hard earned money over because someone needed to fill a citation quota.

And here is where the important part comes in, how exactly to go about fighting an unfair speeding ticket, or other moving violation. Now before we continue I'm going to go through the usual disclaimer about this not being professional legal advice. I'm not a lawyer, and don't guarantee any of this is going to work for you, so don't come asking me for $230 because the judge found you guilty. I'm writing from my own experience, and research that I hope helps people to "stick it to the man". Great, now that that's out of the way lets get to it.