How to beat a speeding ticket without a lawyer or some jerk's book.

Most people who get caught speeding just seem to pay their tickets without protest and suffer the point accumulation and higher insurance rates.  That's perfectly acceptable if you're one of those people who learns a lesson from the experience of being pulled over and subjected to public ridicule from the other drivers while the officer does a special background investigation and writes a dissertation about the heinous crime of 80 in a 65.  However, you don't have to pay without due process (in most states).  But before we get into what to do to beat the ticket, let's talk about what not to do at a traffic stop.

1) Do not argue with the officer.

A cop does not have the authority to debate the law with you.  His job is to enforce the law by detecting and apprehending violators.  And besides, unless you are a lawyer, judge or another cop yourself, you'll very likely lose the argument, get your ticket and gain no advantage from the experience.

2) Do not make snide comments or otherwise try to antagonize the officer.

Cops love this stuff.  Imagine the sheer boredom of sitting in a median listening to police radio, watching cars go by for hours.  Don't you think this fellow would like to go back to the precinct with a story to tell to his buddies at shift change?  Any remark you make will most certainly be used against you when you do show up for court.  If you want to ridicule the officer for his low IQ or poor career choice or his resemblance to some scavenger bird, you'll probably be better off paying your ticket by mail.

3) Do not fumble through your glove box.

Try to have all required documentation in your hand by the time the officer approaches your vehicle.  He/she is used to people doing this but gains no patience or tolerance from the frequency of it.  You know what he's going to ask for; just have it ready and waiting when the time comes.  This will be to your advantage.  Part of the game cops play is simply power.  If you make him wait for you, you're taking some of his power.  He'll do whatever he can to get it back.  By acknowledging his authority, you stand a better chance of receiving whatever break he/she might be inclined to give.  Rule of thumb:  Keep your updated registration and insurance documentation (if required to be presented) within easy reach of your position.  It's not a good idea to be stretching across your vehicle reaching for something.  Cops think you're reaching for your Glock.  Don't be a victim of poor preparation.

4) Do not give the officer anything negative to remember you by.

Being visibly upset or impatient has no value here.  You are being cited for breaking the law.  Showing your contempt for the law, the officer, the government, the establishment or all of the above will not work in your favor.

5) Don't give the officer more power than he already has.

Many cops will try to take advantage of your misfortune by doing little things to enhance the annoyance factor and try to knock you further off balance with your own anger.  For example, an officer will pull in behind you during a stop, turn on the search light and aim it directly at your side view mirror.  Someone please tell me what purpose this serves other than annoying the driver.  Personally, as soon as I come to a stop, I divert the mirror as far downward as possible before the pig turns on the light.  I've seen them trying in vain to find the spot unsuccessfully.  They'll change to the rear view, I'm way ahead of 'em there, too.  So far, I haven't been called to task.  There's no legal requirement to point your mirrors in any particular direction.  If you want to be as low key as possible, just lean out of the way.  Once, I even aimed the mirror back at the officer in his car.  Still no response (verbally).

Go to Court

In states where speeding is still a criminal offense, you have the right (some would say the obligation) to appear in court and defend yourself against prosecution.  It is by no means a forgone conclusion that you'll be found guilty.  In my state, your ticket will be handed to you with a court date already scheduled.  Some states require you to schedule the court date yourself.  And yet others have decriminalized speeding and have designated speeding a civil offense and your rights under criminal law have been removed.  Therefore, you pay your ticket or suffer the consequences.  Your insurance will still go up and you will still be that much closer to losing your driver's license.  At any rate, if the state in which you receive your ticket is one that has not decriminalized speeding, it may be to your advantage to go to court.  Obviously, if you're nabbed in Nebraska on a road trip between Seattle and Atlanta, you probably aren't going to be available on the court date but if it's convenient and feasible, by all means, go.  

First of all, the state is required to produce evidence against you.  This can only be done by the "arresting officer".  That's the cop who wrote the ticket.  He's generally the only witness for the state.  Most of the time he/she will be there but if not, you may ask the judge that the case be dismissed due to a lack of prosecution.  The one time this happened to me, I didn't even have to ask.  I approached the bench when called, the judge immediately realized the policeman was not in attendance and promptly dismissed the case and wished me a good day.  That was in Michigan.  I've been pulled over numerous times in Virginia, been to court every time and the officer always managed to make it.  Mainly because each officer in Virginia has his/her own assigned court dates.  On those dates, the officer basically spends his day as a witness prosecuting traffic violations.  Once, an officer showed up on his day off in full uniform just to present his case against me for 65 in a 50.  I guess he didn't like his convictions being overturned on appeal. 

If you decide to go to court, you'll have choices as to what to plead:  guilty, not guilty or nolo contendre.  Pleading guilty will generally result in exactly what you would expect, a quick judgement against you and you'll owe some money.  Pleading not guilty will result in the state or other government entity presenting their case against you.  This will usually be a recounting of the date, time and particulars of the case with particular attention paid to the method used to ascertain your speed.  This typically includes a statement by the officer that the radar was calibrated before, during and after the stop.  It's probably a lie but it will never be challenged by a judge.  Unless you are a lawyer, I don't recommend challenging this.  Judges generally accept radar detection as indisputable evidence and this rehearsed speech about calibration of the device as gospel.  Don't try to debunk either unless you have rock solid scientific evidence against the radar results or the truthfulness of the rehearsed speech.

Most counties have a law library where you may be able to discover holes in the case against you if there are any irregularities.

Don't go in armed with only rumors and myth.  For example, I have heard that you can have a case dismissed if there is the slightest mistake on the ticket.  Wrong!  Almost every ticket will have some mistakes.  Judges see this as a minor issue in these cases.  Don't bring it up. You'll get no sympathy unless the ticket has a wrong date, wrong name (not a misspelling) or wrong license number.  Cops are quite careful in their ticket writing and judges are quite unconcerned with minor mistakes.

If you plead not guilty and are found guilty, you may have the right to an appeal.  Go for it.  The burden of prosecution is still on the state, county or city.  Same rules apply.  I might suggest requesting a jury trial but I haven't had the experience and can't say what the results might be.  Perhaps someone reading may have gone through this and be able to enlighten us all.

My best advice:  Don't go more than ten mph over the limit.

I finally learned my lesson after many years of defiance.  The way to take away the power of the state is not to invite their attention to your activities, period.  

You might say the title I chose for this post is misleading.  Perhaps.  But I would rather mislead with the title than with content.  I have as much experience at fighting tickets as just about any non-lawyer you'll ever meet and my conclusion is without question the best legal advice you'll ever get for free.

The Decay of Society

I grew up during the seventies and early eighties in a rural area of The Ozarks (as if there were urban areas in the Ozarks).  When I say rural, I mean the nearest McDonald's was 40 miles away.  My cousin, who ran a business with her husband, was unable to get a dedicated phone line until recently.  We did not lock our doors at night.  We didn't even lock the house when we left, even if we were gone for days.  In fact, I don't remember ever using a key on our door lock.  When we drove to town (12 miles away), we didn't lock our car doors or even take the keys out.  It was very common in that area to buy a vehicle and leave the ignition key in for the entire time you owned it.  The thought was that it made no sense to take the key out since you'll just have to put it back in when you're ready to go again; why take a chance on losing or forgetting it?

How could this kind of trust exist?  Easy; there were no strangers, no anonymity.  Any would be thief would have to avoid being identified by anyone in the area, which in most cases would be impossible.  It wasn't as extreme as the cliche':  "Everybody knows everybody else".  However, it may as well have been.

Imagine the scenario:  person A decides to steal a car from a parking lot where the owner has carelessly left the keys in the ignition.  He/she might as well choose the nicest car because all the cars have the keys in them.  The problem for the thief begins as soon as an approach to the vehicle is attempted.  Anyone in the area would most likely know the potential thief, the owner of the car in question and whether or not it would be unusual for that person to be approaching/entering the owner's vehicle.  Even if someone was able to take the vehicle, they would then have to leave the area without being identified.  Not an easy task, even at night since the one policeman on duty would be perched nearby watching for just this kind of activity.  A thief would have to leave with the vehicle in a direction that would not arouse suspicion and not be recognized by just about every person they pass on the way out of town and for at least a 20 mile radius past that.  I remember being able to identify who drove by our house by the sound of the vehicle.  And I could very often identify which family member was driving the vehicle by how it was being driven.

Change the scenario.  the person is a stranger in town.  A close eye is kept on even the most honorable person if they aren't known in the community.

Take it a step further and assume someone was somehow able to steal a truck and leave town without being noticed (highly unlikely).  Now they have to get out of the area without raising the suspicions of every person in every vehicle and every house near the road they pass for the next hour.  A difficult undertaking indeed.  Even though these people were essentially unsuspecting and remarkably unparanoid, the town would have gone on full alert if at the drop of a hat if something as exciting as a theft had taken place.  A quick call to the local police would facilitate road blocks in every direction out of town and neighbors calling neighbors spreading the APB to practically every square foot of the countryside.  I can't remember a single occurrence of automobile theft in all the years I spent there.

I think my astute readers get the point.  The idea I'm trying to convey is that community equals security.  Anonymity equals danger and instability.

Another example:  In the summer of my 5th year, I and the girl next door who was about my age decided we were running away from home.  Our destination was the local telephone facility, a brick building with no windows and most likeley, a locked door.  It was probably half a mile away around a curve in the road.  We set out on our journey with no provisions of any kind.  We managed to get just beyond the curve out of sight of our houses when we were spotted by a neighbor who stopped immediately to ask us where we were going.  Being five, we had no reason to believe we were supposed to try to disguise our intentions and freely provided our destination and purpose.  To our surprise, she quickly collected us in her car and delivered us home.  Imagine this same chain of events in an urban setting.  Granted, our parents would probably have kept a closer watch on us but that enhances my point, they didn't have to because they had the help of the entire community without asking for it.  I later found this somewhat frustrating.  My father had bought me a small motorcycle when I was eight.  My instructions were to be home by dark and stay off the paved roads.  I tried dilligently to obey the former directive but found the latter too much of a hindrance and would occasionally commit violations.  Invariably, a full report of the crime would beat me home.

Why have we permitted this to erode away?  Community isn't something the government can or has taken away from us.  Each of us has the ability, motive and opportunity to increase the stability and security of our neighborhood, community, city, county and for that matter, the entire nation and world.

What sinister purpose would stand a chance against the onslaught of familiarity that would result from people getting to know each other in their communities.  World peace is not impossible.  How can you say something is impossible when it hasn't even been attempted?  Race, religion, nationality; these are just artificial categories we use to differentiate ourselves.  I use the word "differentiate", not "divide".  I see no reason that we should all live by the same creed or religious system or under the same government.  Differentiation is good; division is bad.

What is the reason for racism, bigotry and prejudice?  "Well", you're saying, "there are lots of reasons." WRONG!!!  There is only one reason for any negative behavior, thought or feeling:  FEAR!!  Mr. Roosevelt gave us possibly the greatest revelation of history.  "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  We, the individuals, the people, can achieve world peace ourselves without the help of governments and treaties by simply observing the customs of a community at the individual level.  When disputes happen (and they will), they can be resolved at the lowest level with the highest degree of civility.  Sound like a pipe dream?  It's not.  Consider how people behave in our society now.  We exercize anonymity.  We isolate ourselves from the world in our cars, houses and offices.  We transact business anonymously over the internet, with credit cards and in department stores that have no idea who we are and do not share our concern for our community.

To expound on a previous post, big cities, big government and big business tend to proliferate anonymity, thereby reducing our security, increasing the level of fear which leads to every, not most, every form of crime.

The 3 Factors That Lead to the Ruination of Culture

Big Cities

Big Government

Big Business