Matt Freeman

Thanks to a recent post, I got to thinking...

If you've ever fought a traffic ticket, why did you do it? No judgements here (or against the poster of the previous thread), just curious. My thoughts after the poll...

Edit: My ticket was for speeding... 50 in a 35 mph zone. The thing is, I was caught on radar and the street I was on was not posted "Radar Enforced". So I thought that I could beat the ticket on a technicality.

Then a friend asked me a simple question: "Were you speeding?" Kinda stopped me in my tracks. Luckily in CA we can take traffic school to wipe a ticket from the driving record, so I took that option.

God of Thunder

Had two speeding tickets in a neighboring town a few years ago while working there. My father-in-law, whom I was working for at the time, warned me the cops were pretty nasty about pulling people over. I was going through town at around 6 am, so I was the only one on the street at the time.

Heeding his advice, I set my cruise at the speed limit, 35 MPH. Sure enough, on two occasions, I was pulled over. Both times, within a week of each other, the officer claimed to have clocked me at 10 over. I argued with no luck with the officer at the scene the second time. I asked to see the radar and he said that "locking" the radar was outlawed many years before, so all that I would see would be a empty screen. Basically, he said it was my word against his.

I did some reseach and eventually hired a lawyer since the points from two consecutive tickets would have killed my insurance. My research showed that officers must be trained on the radar and the units need to be calibrated on a regular basis. My lawyer suggested we take a gamble and ask for training certifications on both officers and also ask for calibration certifications for both units.

Long story short, they either did not have the documents or did not feel like looking them up. Both tickets were reduced. My lawyer said that when he asked for the documents in front of the city attorney and the magistrate (he went in without me), the one officer got so pissed, he threw his ticket book across the room.

As a side note, years later, the magistrate now works in the city attorney's office where I now work. I do tech support for the city. (Not the same city I got the tickets in, for those following at home). I asked her recently if she remembered the incident and she did. Apparently the chewed out the officer who threw the ticket book after my attorney left. She is a nice lady, but I would NOT want to be at the receiving end of a lecture from her.

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ratbastid

Yes - None of the Above.

The system allows for a one-time continuance of a traffic violation. I went to court and requested that, and was given it. Not fighting the system. USING the system.

Suave

I wanted to fight a ticket I got (not traffic, but something similar) in court, just in the hope that the cop wouldn't show up and I could avoid paying the charge. However, the offence occurred about 200 km from my home, and I would have had to appear in the court 200 km away, which I was not prepared to do.

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Leto

Yes - None of the above.

I got caught for a "Hollywood Stop" i.e. I rolled through an intersection without coming to a complete stop.

I went to court to fight it mostly because I was pissed off that the cop was hiding behind a dumpster (for Toronto folks: corner of Parliament and King, near the Humane Society) to catch drivers. I thought it was sneaky, so I decided to make him earn his ticket.

I actually got off, because a whole bunch of worse infractions ahead of me plead that it took too long to get to court. (yay!)

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Carno

wtf? You thought that you couldn't get pulled over by a cop using radar because there was no sign? I didn't even know there were such signs.

I always deserve my speeding tickets so I always just pay them. No sense in being a whiny little bitch for something I brought on myself.

EDIT: actually, everyone who speeds deserves the tickets they get when they are pulled over. There is pretty much no excuse for speeding.

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kutulu

here in az they just passed a law saying that you can fight the ticket and then if you lose you can STILL go to traffic school.

Matt Freeman

The "radar enforced" signs are used in California to prevent people from claiming the officer utilized a speed trap to pull them over (which is against CA code.)

Here's a related issue... there's a CA law that states that a speed limit must be within 5mph of what 85% of the cars are cruzing at. If the limit is much lower than that speed, any speeding tickets issued by police utilizing radar can be be thrown out. (link)

As for the thought that everyone who speeds deserves the ticket... I came to that same conclusion. Just took a mild slap upside the head from my buddy to get there.

absorbentishe

You didn't give it a multiple option. I went to court for 2 tickets, and won both. The first, I wasn't speeding, and a car had passed me, similar style/same color, and I got the ticket. Cop didn't show up (yeah for me) Second one, I was speeding, but not going as fast as others, and got pulled over. This was well over an hour away. Had to make 2 trips there, but in the end, the cop didn't show, and I won again. In Ohio, cops don't like to go to court for traffic offenses like speeding, so I took a chance the second time.

Suave

Allow me to toss out a scenario:

A man, call him Bob, has a fantastic ability to detect the presence of new black holes within a three thousand kilometer radius. He also has the ability to consume and thus destroy black holes. Bob senses a black hole forming in the neighbouring town. The problem is, in order to consume the hole before it grows to be too powerful for him, he must drive at 130 km/h. The speed limit is 110 km/h. Now, what does he do? Does he obey the law, because there is no excuse for speeding, or does he SAVE THE PLANET by speeding at 20 km/h over the speed limit?

Answer me THAT, smart guy!

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Carno

Interesting, I never knew that.

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Carno

I said PRETTY MUCH no excuse

That scenario clearly falls under the excusable category

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fresnelly

I got caught going 50km/h in a 30km/h zone. Pretty evil of me right? This was in an unused, vacant industrial area, in the dead of winter. Wtf? Afterwards, I had a hard time keeping it that slow until I was out of the area. Most residential streets in Toronto are 40k/h and main streets are 50-60k/h

That totally ruined my day.

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dksuddeth

Back in 1987, while I was still in the USMC, I got cited for careless and reckless, evading pursuit, and 120 in a 55 while on my motorcycle. Basically, the situation was that I was giving this girl a ride one nite and while we were sitting at a stoplight this gold mazda pulled up behind us and starting yelling at us and honking the horn. There were 4 or 5 guys in the car and some of what I could make out were somewhat threatening to the girl with me. Well, there was no way in hell I was going to get caught anywhere with just me against those 4 or 5 so when the light turned green I took off headed out of town. My intent was to completely lose them and then make it back in to town, get on base, and call it a nite for the both of us. By the time I hit the edge of the city limits I had already hit 120 and could barely see the headlights of the mazda way back there, but still trying to follow me so I pulled in to this tiny little trailer park, shut the bike down, and waited. After a minute the mazda came speeding by, followed closely by 3 of the city cops with lights and sirens blaring. I remember sitting there thinking that since it was a thursday nite that all 3 of the cops out on patrol were in on the chase so I should be safe in riding back in to town. Just as I pulled up to the road, police officer #4 came speeding by. Once he passed me his brake lights came on and I could see he was making an effort to get turned around to come after me. Obviously there were looking for me also so I high tailed it back in to town to try to get on the base before they could get me back in sight and stop me. Well, I didn't make it. Once I got back in to the city proper I maintained the speed limit, took some different side streets, and in general was trying to get as far away from that immediate area as possible when I ran in to police officer number 5. I pulled over, handed the officer my license and he had me sit in his car while he talked to my passenger. Then he came to me and started asking me what was happening. I didn't lie about it, told him all about being harrassed and chased by the guys in the mazda and how I didn't want anything to happen to my passenger. He wrote up my tickets and let me go on my way.

I got all the tickets dismissed in court because the officer never read me any of my miranda rights before asking me any questions. I was never so happy in my life because I would have faced serious military consequences had I been convicted of the 120 in a 55.

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Grasshopper Green

I haven't been pulled over for speeding (knock on wood), but hubby has and both times he paid. The first time we couldn't have stayed to fight it because he got out of the Marines before the court date, so we just hired a lawyer to take care of it. I dont think we would have fought it anyway. The second time was just recently, coming home from Las Vegas. The township of Moapa patrols the stretch of I-15 between Las Vegas and Mesquite via airplane radar, (you have been forewarned!) and I guess the town coffers were getting a bit low because they were pulling people over right and left for speeding. In fact, one cop had three people pulled over at once. Hubby WAS speeding, was going 10 mph over the limit and we were being passed by people. Anyway, the cop said he clocked us at 90 ( a bald faced lie, I was for some reason watching the speedometer carefully, I had my spidey senses going or something) but "let us go" at 85. Fighting the ticket would have been more costly than just paying it, after taking a day off of work, paying for gas, food, and a nights lodging to drive back, despite the ticket being a whopping $190. It was an expensive lesson learned...and now anyone reading this knows not to speed in that area!

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Suave

Fair enough. You win this time, grammar!

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little_tippler

ok here is my story. Not a speeding ticket, but a parking one. But it's interesting so bear with me. So one day I drive in to work and park on a busy avenue in Lisbon. I go to the meter and put in enough money to last me from 11 am till 14h30 pm. It is also a particularly windy day. I am rushed so put parking ticket on windscreen and grab my stuff, lock car and go to work. So at 14h30 pm I return to my car. My car has been blocked (I don't know what you call it in the States but it's when they put those things on your wheels to stop you going anywhere). And I'm like, WTF?! I have a parking ticket! So I look at my windscreen. The parking ticket is not there. So where is it? After looking a bit closer, the ticket is on my back seat, face down. So fair enough, that's why I got blocked that way. So I call them to unblock my car. Just that costs 30 € (25$ or so). So when they come to unblock my car, I show them where the ticket was and they say, yeah but it was facing down and that's why we had to, but you can appeal for the fine. Because there is also a 30 € fine which I can pay on the spot, for parking without paying. But I did pay. I have proof. So I decide to appeal. I write a letter with all the details, the ticket flew in the back because it really was a very windy day,( I have never had an accident or any of that in 6 years, only fine was a parking one), and the ticket to prove I wasn't trying to park without paying. When they reply, they tell me I have no proof that the ticket is mine, and that I was negligent because I didn't check my ticket was clearly visible - it's a goddam flyaway crappy little piece of paper and nothing is provided for people to stick it to the window, so what, I have to look at it over an over again to see it's there?!! (Now I triple check!). And also, because it had been so troublesome for them to reply to my letter, and it had made them waste so much time (yeah right), my fine was now 90 €!!!!!!!!!! (75 $ or so). So I paid up because I thought, that's enough of my money and time wasted right there, and I probably wouldn't get my money back if I tried anyway.

How's that for justice? Sheesh.

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guthmund

I fought only one traffic ticket. I didn't do it to try and get away with something, I fought it to beat the cop.

This particular cop, 'Off. Charming,' used to sit across the street from my workplace late at night. When the shift left, he'd pick one of us to follow.

He pulled me over a number of times, sometimes just to find out what I was doing.
About 20 minutes later after running my driver's license, he tells me he's just 'investigating reports of suspicious activity' before finally letting me go. I was pulled over a handful of times over the next two months. Always the same cop, always the same time of night and almost always in the same spot.
During another exchange...
This was after I passed an impromptu field sobriety test because he thought I was drunk. I tried explaining that I had spilled my soda pulling away from a stoplight and swerved a bit into another lane. I apologized. Yes, I swerved, but it was around midnight on a Tuesday and the road in my metropolitan hometown of 20,000 was completely empty. He insisted I was drinking, insisted I take a field sobriety test and then began 'interrogating' me.
Anyway the one ticket I ended up fighting was for reckless driving (I misjudged a stop sign and slammed on my brakes. I managed not to fly out onto the busy bypass and no one was behind me. No harm, no foul I thought. Officer Charming witnessed the 'incident' from across the busy bypass from over 100 yards away and from behind a big ass billboard. I managed to pull out, drive the half mile to work, pull into the parking lot and get out of my truck before he came rushing up....lights and siren blaring, of course. He actually said...
I fought the ticket even though technically, I guess I was guilty. I brought in poster boards filled with little figures and diagrams. I brought in copies of my tickets and a couple of co-workers showed up to make their statements (including my boss, who had also been pulled over more than a couple of times by this guy). The ticket was dismissed.

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Carno

EDIT: oops, nevermind, got it backwards..

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Gatorade Frost

I didn't realise that your Miranda rights applied in a situation that didn't involve an arrest? That's bizarre.

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dksuddeth

Thats where the prosecutor tried to show that I wasn't under arrest, therefore, the miranda rights didn't apply but apparently none of the officers got a good look at my bike and could not identify me so they just stopped the first bike they saw with two people on it. I guess thats how it applied.

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Cynthetiq

I fight them if I have the time, because usually you can plead down and pay less than what is posted on the envelope.

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NoSoup

I got pulled over a while back for going 50 mph in a 35 mph school zone. This is, in fact, what I was doing. Because it was in a school zone, and because I had a probationary licence (In Wisconsin, the first two years you have your license it is considered "probationary" my points were doubled, and the doubled again. I was looking at 12 points for my first offence - enough to make me lose my license in one fell swoop.

I went to court and admitted that I had in fact broken the law, but explained that I had never had any prior tickets. I also explained that where I was pulled over was just after a highway became city streets, the speed limit dropping from 65 mph to 35 mph - and although it may be classified as a school zone, I was at least a mile away from the school and it was a Sunday.

Fortunately, either because I plead my case so well or the judge took pity on me, he decided to not to double my points twice, and I only got stuck with the original 3 points it would have been had it not been a school zone and I not had a probationary license. He did, however, increase the fine - I believe instead of paying $270.00 he bumped it up to $350.00, plus court costs.

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ziadel

never fought a traffic ticket.

not worth my time.

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Sage

Two speeding tickets- one here in Asheville, comin down on the 240 bypass, ON MY BIRTHDAY. Got it reduced.

The other one was on the way to a friend's wedding last summer, in the middle of BFE on I-40. I was clocked going 76mph in a 65 zone. I paid the ticket, not realizing until later that it cost me FOUR FUCKING POINTS. The same as if I had passed a stopped schoolbus. I *so* would have driven all the way back to where I was ticketed if I had known that at the time to fight it. It was really, really stupid, being as it was on the interstate, in the middle of the morning, with very light traffic, and the reason I was going that fast was to pass the fucker in front of me who was driving like his head was up his ass.

No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask?

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c172g

I've gotten plenty of tickets, but I did get one that really pissed me off...the cop said I was going 75 in a 55 and I know very well that I was going about 63. I had a friend who was a state cop & he sent me the pages from THEIR manual regarding having to go in for a ticket hearing. There was a lot of good stuff in it, like calibrating the radar, and all of the types of errors they can encounter in different settings (billboards, sine & cosine errors, there are about 7 different kinds). I started grilling the cop on the different errors & if he was aware of them & what they meant. He was amazed that I knew the stuff I did, I could see it in his face, as was the magistrate.

Regardless, he answered all my questions, said he had "never encountered those errors in that stretch of highway" and I paid my ticket. He actually came up & shook my hand & commended me on being well prepared, as most people go in looking for a technicality or hoping the cop doesn't show up, or simply saying "I didn't do it".

Anyway, been there, done that, got the t-shirt & bought myself a ticket for the policeman's ball.

darkangel

I was going to school during the week, working as a motel housekeeper on the weekends for $500/month.

Cop came over of the "bush", tailgated, I went through a yellow, I got slammed with $390. I paid it, even though people told me I should've fought it.

Here's just a question I think about when seeing cops around: When you see a cop car do you feel relieved and safe that you're being protected, or do you feel threatened and want to just get away from them (even when you're completely innocent)? Hm...

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ziadel

I get alarmed and watch them like a hawk. Last thing I need is to get shot by one of them, and the cops around here are known for being really, really stupid.

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Daniel_

The more I read the more I'm glad I live in England where most cops are unarmed, and the speed offenses are less complicated - there is one rule: drive at less than the applicable speed.

No school zones, no city limits, no "field sobriety tests".

Parking tikets get you a fine from the local council - not the police.

Stop signs are advisory.

Nobody here knows wat Jaywalking is - unless they saw it on an american TV show. Cross the road wherever you like and if you're stupid enough to get run over, then it serves you right.

And there's none of that four way stop junction crap - we have nice sensible roundabouts.

I have been caught speding twice - once I was doing 95mph in a 70. I was followed and stopped by a motorbike traffic patrol who showed me the speed gun with the numbers on it. I admitted I'd done the crime, so I paid the fine.

More recently I was photographed by a fixed camera as I did 60 in a 40. Again I was guilty, so I paid.

That's all in 18 years of driving.

I got 2 parking tickets - once when I failed to read the signs and thought I was in a free parking area, but it was residents only. I paid.

Once wn I had bought a ticket but the warden hadn't seen it on my dashboard - and when I pointed it out to him he tore up his ticket.

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Prince

I've never gotten a speeding ticket. I like to drive responsibly. I know, what an old-fashioned notion. Only ticket I've gotten is for when a parking meter ran out.

My fault, so I paid for it. Dodging responsibilities is for pussies.

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Xerxys

Yes - None of the Above ... I failed to appear, hired a lawyer, got me off on two cases, first one was unsafe lane change and second one was going 60 on a 35 zone ...

How many people vote for me to move to where there's more public transportation?

ItWasMe

I have never received a speeding ticket.

I've only been pulled over once (knock on wood), on a country toad, and that was for a headlight that was out only when my brights were on. No ticket.


I did get a parking ticket once. Ironically, I was a witness in court and I couldn't leave to move my car. Court dragged out, and my 2-friggin-hour parking spot expired before I could testify and get back to my car. I didn't fight it; I had already missed one day of work for the trial. I should have written a letter and attempt to have it reduced. But I did not.

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telekinetic

Source? Because, this rules!

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inBOIL

I will go out of my way to avoid having a cop follow me. I've even pulled over to the side of the road and waited for them to get bored and move on.

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MSD

The one time I knew I couldn't beat a ticket, I was going 85 in a 55 in almost no traffic. I came over the hill and saw the cop at the bottom. If he had his radar on, he had already tagged me. I gambled that I could get down the hill, over the next two, and onto back roads before he could get going up the hill. I didn't see lights or hear sirens, but you can bet my heart was racing. I topped 100 coming off the second hill, and he was nowhere in sight. Either he was asleep or decided not to bother, because I didn't see another cop on the way to work.

The only time I got pulled over for speeding, I was doing 42 in a 30 at 2 in the morning, I didn't even realize I was speeding, and I got a verbal warning because I was polite, respectful, honest, and I'm pretty sure he just wanted to make sure I wasn't drunk.

Flinx

Gotten a few tickets over the years but the only one I fought was for not wearing a seatbelt. The law in my neck of the woods states everybody must wear a seatbelt (strapped into a booster aka car seat counts for the young ones) UNLESS they are "driving" a Emergency vehicle (there is actually list and I can't remember them all) or a Postal truck or have a medical exemption certificate. At the time the truck I was driving was covered under the emergency vehicle clause but the officer that pulled me over disagreed (he couldn't be bothered to listen to me). On the other hand the judge the was presiding over the case did agree ,almost had to considering that tow trucks on route to a highway police call are considered an emergency vehicle under another law and I was on route to a highway police call (multi vehicle accident blocking all 3 lanes).
The judge was very nice about it to me but got very rude about it to the officer, certainly I expected the officer in question to have been asked to use better personal judgement in the future and maybe a bit more in private (judge's chambers), I don't remember the exact wording the judge used (wish I could) but it basically told the officer that if a case like this ever came up before him again the officer would really regret it. About halfway through the judge's speach I vowed to myself to never ever be before him again for any reason.

spindles

In Oz, you can write a letter for a first offence and have it not appear on your record. All good.

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