How to Fight a Traffic Ticket, Part One
I've lived in Arizona for just over two years and just received my first traffic ticket. Or, rather tickets.
I moved here from St. Louis, Missouri, where speeders can retain an attorney, who then negotiates with the Prosecuting Attorney from the municipality that issued the ticket. Essentially, the attorney tells the Prosecuting Attorney that their client will agree to pay a fine and court costs in exchange for the PA recommending the ticket be amended to a non-moving, non-point violation. Since I worked in law firms, I almost always obtained an amendment and paid $125 a pop for the speeding tickets I received and no points were ever assessed.
There are law firms in St. Louis that handle only traffic tickets!
In Arizona, there are three options: attend defensive driving school, (which is a revenue generating source for the State), pay a ridiculous fine without attending traffic school and points are assessed, (which is also a large source of revenue for the State) or request a hearing.
A few weeks ago, I made a right turn onto 70th Street from Shea in Scottsdale. The signs there say the speed limit there is 35 miles per hour. There was a fair amount of traffic that day because there were two police officers writing tickets and the traffic was slowing down because of the police officers in the area. Somehow, the police officer figured out a way that it was possible for me to speed despite the traffic.
I was stopped for speeding in a school zone and the officer gave me a second ticket for an unsafe lane change. I'm not clear on where he thought I was speeding, but the signs are confusing and if he had me on radar in the 35 mile per hour zone, he shouldn't have ticketed me. I think the officer made a mistake and ticketed the wrong person or stopped me in for speeding in a school zone when I wasn't actually speeding in a school zone.
Beside that, the signage there is confusing. Is it a school zone or a construction site? There's a huge sign on the fence that says "McCarthy Construction" and there's nothing to otherwise indicate it's a school.
The best part about this is that it wasn't a camera ticket -- it was a police officer on a motorcycle. From a defense standpoint, I think I have a few arguments that I wouldn't have if I received a camera ticket.
After considering all my options, I decided to request a hearing before a judge. If I had only received one ticket I might have considered attending driving school, but under the circumstances it would only get me out of one ticket. Also, I don't think I was guilty of either offense. I was mad as hell and found myself relishing an opportunity to cross examine the police officer on the stand, assuming he even shows up for the court date.
Yes, I realize getting excited about a traffic ticket sounds odd and probably terrifying to many of you, but the law is an area I'm fairly comfortable with. I had some great attorney mentors I've watched prepare expert defenses in the past and I'm comfortable with my odds. I don't think I have much to lose -- the difference in costs of paying the ticket and going to driving school is only $25 and I think I can get at least one of them dismissed, if not both.
I bought a book called "An Educated Guide to Speeding Tickets: How to Beat and Avoid Them" by Richard Wallace, II. He is a former police officer who became disillusioned with being a police officer and specifically, the number of tickets being written for speeders. About half of the information in the book is information I knew from working in the legal field, but the rest of it is surprising. For example, did you know that insurance companies give the radar devices to police departments to use in pulling speeders over?
Wallace goes into great detail in the book about radar's faults, how police departments don't have the devices calibrated as often as they should and that police officers don't always have adequate training to use the radar devices. He also talks about how the whole system is a racket and that many officers are given quotas because a large percentage of a city's revenues are generated from writing speeding tickets.
In Missouri there are municipalities outside of St. Louis that generate a whopping 45% of their operating revenue from speeding tickets. That area is on Highway 70 near Lambert St. Louis airport and is known as "the vortex" because everyone locally knows they'll get a ticket for going only one or two miles over the limit.
I'm lucky that I'm comfortable with the law, because I realize that a lot of you aren't. When I win and the tickets are dismissed, I'll be in position to help you fight speeding tickets and win.
My next step is a visit to the Scottsdale Police Department to make a records request. I've already returned to the scene and photographed the signs and will be preparing a diagram to take to court for the hearing.
Stay tuned for my updates! My hearing is on October 15 at 1:00 p.m. in Scottsdale. I'll keep you posted on my preparations for the hearing.
I moved here from St. Louis, Missouri, where speeders can retain an attorney, who then negotiates with the Prosecuting Attorney from the municipality that issued the ticket. Essentially, the attorney tells the Prosecuting Attorney that their client will agree to pay a fine and court costs in exchange for the PA recommending the ticket be amended to a non-moving, non-point violation. Since I worked in law firms, I almost always obtained an amendment and paid $125 a pop for the speeding tickets I received and no points were ever assessed.
There are law firms in St. Louis that handle only traffic tickets!
In Arizona, there are three options: attend defensive driving school, (which is a revenue generating source for the State), pay a ridiculous fine without attending traffic school and points are assessed, (which is also a large source of revenue for the State) or request a hearing.
A few weeks ago, I made a right turn onto 70th Street from Shea in Scottsdale. The signs there say the speed limit there is 35 miles per hour. There was a fair amount of traffic that day because there were two police officers writing tickets and the traffic was slowing down because of the police officers in the area. Somehow, the police officer figured out a way that it was possible for me to speed despite the traffic.
I was stopped for speeding in a school zone and the officer gave me a second ticket for an unsafe lane change. I'm not clear on where he thought I was speeding, but the signs are confusing and if he had me on radar in the 35 mile per hour zone, he shouldn't have ticketed me. I think the officer made a mistake and ticketed the wrong person or stopped me in for speeding in a school zone when I wasn't actually speeding in a school zone.
Beside that, the signage there is confusing. Is it a school zone or a construction site? There's a huge sign on the fence that says "McCarthy Construction" and there's nothing to otherwise indicate it's a school.
The best part about this is that it wasn't a camera ticket -- it was a police officer on a motorcycle. From a defense standpoint, I think I have a few arguments that I wouldn't have if I received a camera ticket.
After considering all my options, I decided to request a hearing before a judge. If I had only received one ticket I might have considered attending driving school, but under the circumstances it would only get me out of one ticket. Also, I don't think I was guilty of either offense. I was mad as hell and found myself relishing an opportunity to cross examine the police officer on the stand, assuming he even shows up for the court date.
Yes, I realize getting excited about a traffic ticket sounds odd and probably terrifying to many of you, but the law is an area I'm fairly comfortable with. I had some great attorney mentors I've watched prepare expert defenses in the past and I'm comfortable with my odds. I don't think I have much to lose -- the difference in costs of paying the ticket and going to driving school is only $25 and I think I can get at least one of them dismissed, if not both.
I bought a book called "An Educated Guide to Speeding Tickets: How to Beat and Avoid Them" by Richard Wallace, II. He is a former police officer who became disillusioned with being a police officer and specifically, the number of tickets being written for speeders. About half of the information in the book is information I knew from working in the legal field, but the rest of it is surprising. For example, did you know that insurance companies give the radar devices to police departments to use in pulling speeders over?
Wallace goes into great detail in the book about radar's faults, how police departments don't have the devices calibrated as often as they should and that police officers don't always have adequate training to use the radar devices. He also talks about how the whole system is a racket and that many officers are given quotas because a large percentage of a city's revenues are generated from writing speeding tickets.
In Missouri there are municipalities outside of St. Louis that generate a whopping 45% of their operating revenue from speeding tickets. That area is on Highway 70 near Lambert St. Louis airport and is known as "the vortex" because everyone locally knows they'll get a ticket for going only one or two miles over the limit.
I'm lucky that I'm comfortable with the law, because I realize that a lot of you aren't. When I win and the tickets are dismissed, I'll be in position to help you fight speeding tickets and win.
My next step is a visit to the Scottsdale Police Department to make a records request. I've already returned to the scene and photographed the signs and will be preparing a diagram to take to court for the hearing.
Stay tuned for my updates! My hearing is on October 15 at 1:00 p.m. in Scottsdale. I'll keep you posted on my preparations for the hearing.
So what happened? Is you lack of update a sign that you lost your case?
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It's about money. Cities and states acrue allot of revenue via tickets and the way to handle this is not to get mad, but to get even. Everyticket you receive is redeamable for one NOT Guilty verdict the next time you serve on a jury. You will never see the other eleven people again and it costs the state a fortune, definitely more than your ticket, to re-try the case. The lost revenue cuts into the raises the police receive and upgrades to equipment required to do the job. When you are on a jury you have more power than anyone else in the courtroom INCLUDING the judge.
Use that power.
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