Got my first speeding ticket. 65 in a 45. Cop was sitting perpendicular in a driveway at the top of a hill, so all I saw was his taillights at the top of the hill. $184. I know I wasn't going that fast, maybe 50something. Do I bother to fight this?

 

Remember that the cop is always right, unless PROVEN wrong. Unless you can prove he didn't calibrate his radar gun, it is doubtful you can beat it. You might be able to get the sentence reduced slightly through pleading, but it will require court time.

Michael

 

Last time I got a ticket I was pi$$ed. I couldn't believe it. I felt it was a bad call, I complained to my wife. She just reminded me of the times that I have "stepped over the line" on speed and never gotten cited. So it was "my turn for a ticket". I hated throwing away 200 bucks on it, but it got my attention. Now I really watch the posted speed and run a radar detector and look for "traps". Its so easy to above the posted speed limit you can't be too attentive.

Hopefully you don't always run 20 over. Maybe traffic school is an option for this. You can chance the officer won't show at court or try the radar gun calibration thing. I've even heard something about the road having to be audited or speed surveyed every so often for the speed to be legit. Ultimately all these things are a lot of time and effort, it's really easier and maybe cheaper to pay the ticket and move on wiser from the experience. Good Luck on this!

 

Actually, it's been my experience that you are innocent until proven guilty. However the cops word is considered evidence against you. So the only way to beat his evidence is to show his word has weak validity. Best way to do this is question him about his Radar/Laser gun. Find out if he checked it and how he checked it. Then run it through to the very end with questions... There's a few sites that tell you how to do this like http://www.beatmyspeedingticket.com/ and http://www.ticketassassin.com/index.html

I've used them before and I've only lost twice in a BS court where REAL evidence doesn't mean anything. (Burbank, CA) BTW, if you get a ticket in Burbank, just pay it. There's absolutely no possible way to win a case in Burbank no matter how much REAL evidence you bring in. Trust me, the only two tickets I've ever been given that I didn't deserve were in Burbank and I lost them both in court. I stay clear of Burbank all-together now.

Best advice I can give you though is to push the court day back over and over. Delay delay delay. Each time you get an extension, wait for about a month before the court date and extend it again. Keep doing that until they don't give you the option. Usually the cop won't show up at that point. Then you don't even have to deal with the Judge being full of crap or the cop lying in court.

 

If you were speeding man up and just pay it.

 

In VA that's reckless driving. Try to get it reduced to a simple speeding ticket. My daughter recently got caught in a well known speed trap area - Emporia, VA. She and my wife made the 3 hour drive down to appear in court and judge reduced it to defective equipment - speedometer. Not even a moving violation. I don't know what your record looks like but that is going to play a HUGE role in what you can do. Her's was clean.

Good luck.

 

 

i didnt think it was legal for them to park in someone's driveway without consent from the homeowner. otherwise, its trespassing. this could void the ticket.

 

Pay it or go to court and fight it but