Throughout the years, there have been some pretty dreadful defense strategies used by many people when it came to their traffic ticket. But I don’t really blame them. Most were just relying on ‘insider’ information some website was selling.

In this article we will go over the 5 most common mistakes used by people when trying to fight their traffic ticket. Use these as a guide of what not to do.

Mistake #1- Delaying the traffic court date

Almost every other book I’ve read on traffic tickets advises you to postpone the trial by asking for a continuance. They claim the longer your traffic court trial is from the original infraction, the greater the chance the officer will fail to show up to court on your traffic ticket.

Do not try to delay your date with the traffic court. You will not increase the likelihood the officer wont be there and thus having your traffic ticket thrown out.

Lets say that you do get your traffic court date pushed back. What if the police officer still shows at court?

Traffic officers get paid overtime to be in traffic court. They don’t bring them off their patrols to be there.

Mistake #2- Requesting evidence before traffic court.

Don’t get me wrong, you have the legal right to view everything they plan on using to convict you. Its called discovery, and is useful before a murder trial. But this is traffic court and it can hurt your case.

If you file a motion for discovery this tells the prosecution that you intend to plan a defense. In almost every case the prosecutor will make sure his case is airtight so you have virtually no chance of winning.

Don’t give the prosecution a heads up that you know anything about traffic court proceedings. Do not contact them prior to your traffic court date.

Mistake #3- Doing a lot of needless research

Who likes to spend their free time at the courthouse researching boring piles of books pertaining to law? Trust me, there is no need in doing this.

Only rarely would it be prudent to look up a law so you know how it may be worded, other than that it is needless to do this with most traffic tickets.

Mistake #4- Attacking the officer’s credibility

If your defense is to go to traffic court and try to make the officer who gave you the traffic ticket look like an idiot, don’t waste your time. Using any number of ridiculous excuses like the police officer singled you out or that he used the radar gun improperly will not work.

Never go into a courtroom with the intent to challenge the officer’s training of the radar/laser gun. This type of defense is always attacked by the judge. He will accept the officer’s testimony as to his training and will tell you to ask your next question.

The officer will NOT have to prove his training qualifications in the courtroom. Let’s face it, the officer has been properly trained and knows how to work the radar/laser gun. No question about it. If you try and go this route you will be disappointed when the judge asks you to provide evidence supporting your claim.

Mistake #5- Showing up to traffic court unprepared.

This may be the biggest mistake individuals make when they try to fight a traffic ticket. They go into traffic court thinking they did their homework, when in reality they had no idea what they were doing, and end up paying the traffic ticket.

Those who did no research go to traffic court with the notion that they can just tell their side of the story and the judge will see things their way and dismiss their traffic ticket. Yeah right!

Its understandable that it can be nerve wracking showing up to traffic court. Just remember you aren’t on trial for your life, its just a traffic ticket. Traffic court is designed to be user friendly because of the volume of people going through there daily.

If you avoid these 5 mistakes you will have a better chance of claiming your victory in traffic court, and hopefully getting that traffic ticket thrown out.

Common Sense Ways Drivers Can Avoid Moving Violation Citations The unmarked cars are almost always the same as the marked cars, only they will be painted as the civilian version. speeding tickets court Make sure your side mirrors, tail lights, blinkers and head lights all work correctly.

It is possible that the rate you pay for your current car insurance coverage is not what that policy is going for currently. Auto insurance companies change the rates of policies frequently. And they will not inform you if your policy has become cheaper to new customers.

Your same low rate car insurance coverage can likely be found cheaper from a different provider or sometimes even with the same provider you are presently with. When you are looking for cheap, inexpensive car insurance coverage, free private websites can help those who are searching for lower rates.

Fact: Cheap car insurance coverage for teens is available for many that qualify.

The internet has changed the way people buy many things and low rate auto insurance is one of them. Websites have popped up all over offering low rate auto insurance as well as offering the ability to compare car insurance coverage rates from several insurance companies at once.

Fact: Websites that offer car insurance coverage quotes can be the easiest way to see if you are overpaying for your auto insurance. They are also great when you simply get curious about what current premiums might be.

One of the great things is that auto insurance websites allow you to get car insurance coverage without even having to talk to an insurance agent. Literally a few minutes on the internet can save you hours of calling around to different insurers and maybe even hundreds of dollars a year in premiums.

Just taking a quick look will tell you right away if you could be getting a lower car insurance coverage rate with the same company or by changing companies. Taking the time to do a quick search can help you get the most competitive rate possible whether you plan to change companies or stay right where you are.

With these types of services it is always free to search and you are never under any obligation.

The recession has made shopping for car insurance coverage a buyers market in a lot of respects, so why not take a few minutes and see what you can save?

So give it a try, and take advantage of this recession.

Sit up in your seat so you have better visibility. Most cops will admit to targeting the left lane of the highway when looking to give out speeding tickets. traffic court But that van or SUV parked on the side of the street could be a photo radar unit.

On average, over 100,000 drivers get speeding tickets every day. Thats 36,500,000 traffic tickets yearly.

One in every six drivers will be ticketed for speeding this year.

An average speeding ticket will cost you $150.

36,500,000 x 150.00 = $5,475,000,000 That’s almost 5 and a half BILLION dollars per year in speeding ticket fines alone.

Auto insurance for just one speeding ticket can cost you around $900 on average over 3 years.

Take 36,500,000 and multiply by $900 and you get 3.28 BILLION! Thats the extra money auto insurance companies make in increased premiums.

Over 95% of people who receive a speeding ticket never contest it and just pay the fine.

The other 5% who make an effort to fight their ticket usually have their case dismissed or receive reduced charges that don’t get reported on their driving record.

There are almost 200,000,000 licensed drivers currently in the US.

A police officer will fail to show up to court between 30 to 50% of the time. This is immediate grounds for a dismissal.

Paradise Valley, Arizona, in 1987 became the first town in America to use photo radar.

In 1966 Brooklyn Ohio was the first city that mandated the use of seat belts.

Drivers aged 17-24 receive the majority of speeding tickets.

Males receive more speeding tickets than their female counter parts.

More women than men fight their speeding tickets in traffic court.

17 year olds cause more traffic accidents than any other age.

In 1879 two men in Seattle Washington were ticketed for speeding horses.

Henry Ford’s first motor vehicle, built in 1894, only went forward.

In 1868 horse buggies and also pedestrians in London were the first to use the precursor to the modern day traffic lights.

Washington D.C. area photo radar cameras since 1999 have been responsible for almost 3,000,000 traffic tickets worth almost $200,000,000.

The earliest known speeding ticket on file was issued in 1910 to the Prime Minister of Canada’s wife. She was traveling at a whopping 10 mph over the limit.

Speeding tickets are handed out to doctors more than any other type of profession.

In salary and benefits an average police officer will cost a city around $75,000 a year. He will also make the town an average of $150,000 in that same year. Cops are good investments.

The top 10 states for giving out speeding tickets are:

1. Ohio 2. Pennsylvania 3. New York 4. California 5. Texas 6. Georgia 7. Virginia 8. North Carolina 9. Massachusetts 10. Connecticut

Check out Speedtrap.org for an exhaustive list for any city in the US. Common Sense Alternatives You Can Prevent Moving Violation Tickets traffic school Common Sense Ways You Can Prevent Moving Violation Tickets

If there is one thing that all 50 states have in common, it’s speed traps. It’s a location where police have a reputation for writing an unusually high number of speeding tickets.

There are common areas for speed traps. They can be in areas where there are bends in the road, stretches of road where the speed limit changes often, or where it might be difficult to see the posted speed limit.

Speed traps are also found in small towns and cities, usually near a major highway where travelers are unlikely to return to challenge a speeding ticket. Another way that police manipulate the roads to catch unsuspecting drivers in speed traps are on long stretches of highway. They’ll take two distinct markers on the road and measure the distance between them.

The way they do this is by knowing how long it takes to drive the distance between the two points they have chosen doing the posted speed limit. Once they have that information its a simple mathematical formula to gauge your speed. If you were speeding they will radio the speed, make, model and color of your car to an officer waiting down the road. That officer will pull you over and serve the citation.

The legality of the whole thing has been debated for years. Politicians and police officers alike have always supported controversial means to ticket drivers by preaching to us that it ’saves lives’. We all know the real reason is to greatly increase revenue.

The truth is, using deceptive means such as speed traps is unethical. Not to mention illegal. But law enforcement gets away with it all the time. Deceptive practices of writing traffic violations is quite literally worth billions of dollars yearly in America.

Next time your in your vehicle protect yourself from speed traps. And if you are planning on going on a road trip, do some research beforehand on the internet to determine where likely speed traps might be.

This is an easy way to be alerted to the fact that there is an officer gunning people for speeding tickets. Common Sense Ways Drivers Can Prevent Moving Violation Infractions traffic court lawyers Beware of turns and curves in the road. These are magnets for speeding tickets.

Law enforcements ability to write traffic tickets has limitations. For one, a law enforcement official can only pull over and write one citation at a time. The governments found this to be too time consuming and it cost too much money.

Now with technology growing at a rapid pace, new and alternative methods have been created.

The old system of traffic enforcement simply wasn’t doing the job of making the kinds of money our government wants to make.

There are just too many factors: First, they have to hire the cop to pull you over. This also means the use of a police vehicle which also costs money. Next, the traffic stop itself is a dangerous situation for the officer and potentially other drivers or pedestrians. Third, after it’s all said and done, the driver may still end up driving away without a ticket (if the officer decides to just give a warning).

And last, in the time it took the officer to pull you over and write a ticket, many more people go speeding by, so there was money lost from not pulling them over!

Introducing photo radar… the government’s latest scheme to generate more money, all in the name of safety. Within minutes, a photo radar machine can catch dozens of drivers on a single stretch of road. These radar cameras literally do the jobs of several cops.

There’s no longer the need to actually pull people over anymore. With traffic cameras, speeding tickets are mailed directly to the home of the offender. Talk about service!

Since it was deployed photo radar has increased revenue for municipalities that employ it, maximized enforcement resources for other duties, and increased conviction rates in traffic court. Also drivers insurance rates went up.

The age of photo radar is still in its infancy. To date, there are only 20 or so states that employ this method of speed detection – California, Colorado, Arizona, Ohio and Washington to name a few.

The photo radar is such a money maker that its popularity is growing fast.

More and more cities across the nation are beginning to catch on to the money making potential that photo radar has. Its relative simplicity and monetary benefits makes photo radar a good choice for many cities.

In areas that are financially strapped, photo radar gives them an immediate answer to their money misery.

Just think about it, within a short time a photo radar can take pictures of many speeding motorists, what it would take many officers to accomplish traditionally.

How does a photo radar work you may ask? Think of it as a radar gun and a high quality camera rolled up into one. It gets programmed to take a photo of your license plate at a certain speed.

For example, if a certain street’s speed limit is 25 mph, the radar gun might be set to activate when any vehicle travels over 30 mph.

When this happens, the radar gun will instantly trigger the camera to take a picture of the entire vehicle (sometimes it’s just the back, other times its the back and front of the vehicle) to get the license plate information. The picture is electronically filed away and the process is carried on throughout the day and night. Hundreds of individuals will have their picture taken – courtesy of Big Brother.

When the database of the photo radar is accessed at a later time, they photos will be examined inaccurancies.

The clarity of the license plate will be examined to see if it is readable. If it cant be it will be discarded.

Once the legible pictures from the photo radar have been determined and the license plate numbers ran through the bureau of motor vehicles database, if the car is registered to say, a female, and there is a female driving the vehicle, BINGO, a speeding ticket will be on its way to the registered owners address.

This process is repeated until all the pictures from the photo radar have been gone through, until the next batch arrives. Photo radar enforcement is on the rise, hopefully this article will give you a heads up about it.

Like innocent little fish swimming past the jaws of a lurking shark. Knowing where they might be before you get on the road is a wise decision. fight traffic violation There’s a computerized radar gun and camera inside.

There are differences between traffic tickets. Determining the type of ticket you have is important when evaluating your situation.

If you receive a minor citation that doesn’t result in points to your license you may be better off just paying it instead of fighting it in traffic court.

Traffic tickets fall under one of two categories: non-moving violations and moving violations. Non-moving violations typically involve parking your car illegally or minor ‘fix-it’ tickets. These violations are not as serious as their counter-parts (moving violations) and usually involve much smaller fines.

Also these don’t show up on your record, and your auto insurance wont get wind of them either.

Common non moving violations can include failure to use your seatbelt, improper registration, no license plate or lamps, improper parking, and a broken or non working taillight.

The fines for non moving violations are normally small, like around $50 or less. So its usually better, just from a hassle stand point, to pay these types of violations and not waste hours in traffic court.

However, if you feel you were unjustly ticketed for any reason, you should always make an attempt to try and resolve the matter in some way. For instance, a broken tail light ticket can usually be beat by showing a recent receipt that you have fixed the tail light.

On the other hand, a moving violation is any law broken by the automobile driver while the vehicle is in motion. This type of violation is distinguished by the term ‘motion’. While a non moving violation is charged against the vehicle, a moving violations are charged against the driver of a vehicle. While usually only classifies as infractions or misdemeanors, serious violations can be felonies.

In most places, moving violations involve fines which must be paid as well as punitive points assessed to the license of the driver. As a driver accumulates points, he or she may be required to attend defensive driving lessons, re-take his or her driving test or even surrender his or her license.

Here in the United States, citation fines are nominal dollar amounts, usually between $50 and $500. In some countries, however, they are proportional to the violator’s income and fines in excess of $100,000 can be assessed to wealthy individuals.

Common moving violations include: speeding (by far the most common violation) , running a stop sign or red traffic light, failure to yield to someone with the right of way, failing to maintain a single lane, not stopping for a pedestrian in a crosswalk, crossing the gore (striped area), failure to secure a load to a truck, driving in a car pool lane illegally, or driving too slow for road conditions, particularly in a left-hand lane

Some of the more serious types of moving violations can include racing, driving under the influence, and vehicular homicide.

Traffic violations are also broken down into either civil or criminal. While they both have points and fines associated with them, only criminal violations can wind up you up in jail.

Sentences handed down in criminal violations are obligations to the state for acts committed. The term ’state’ can be a city, town, state or federal government or any other kind of m municipality. These are moving violations to avoid at all costs, obviously.

traffic law Common Sense Alternatives To Prevent Non Moving Violation Citations Common Sense Alternatives Drivers Can Avoid Traffic Citations Things like your headlights, tail lights, blinkers and mirrors should all be in functioning condition.

categories: speeding tickets,law enforcement,legal,law,automotive,insurance,auto insurance,advice,family