Traffic Court 101?

[Yoyoma]

I took the plea. Aside from Shyster's description of the prosecutor having his way with me, it was a co-worker's input and the risk / reward scenario that got me to accept the plea.

1 - That type of 'violation' is a judgement call and when it comes to he said / she said, 9 times out of 10 they are going to side with the police.

2 - Regardless of whether I won or not, I was told by the judge I would have to pay associated court costs. So pay $104 and possibly be found guilty or pay $150 and have it go away in 3 months.

Thanks all for your input.

[ShysterJon]

You are a wise man.

[The Eternal Bachelor]

Glad you found a solution that worked out for you.

[theghost]

Know the situation better than the cop that wrote the ticket. I got pulled over recently for allegedly crossing a single white line on the freeway. I kept my mouth shut, let him feel like he is in charge. Went to court, trial by judge. Told the judge it was at night when I was ticketed. I switched lanes before the solid line began, signaled correctly prior to the lane change. The traffic was heavy, etc. I challenged the ticket by saying the cop was not immediately behind me to clearly see the action nor in a location to see clearly that I was performing an illegal lane change since he came up from behind 2 other cars (I.e. He was driving behind me with obstructed view). My car is silver, a very common color and is a four door, again very common, he may have confused my car with another car due to nighttime driving and him not having a clean view of my lane change. Ticket dismissed.

[Texanbychoice]

Originally Posted by instfixer

Unless you have a lawyer- you just lost your case

But i suspect you will represent yourself.
The judge will not allow any latitude- you will be expected to be as knowledgeable as a lawyer. The prosecution will be able to rune circles around you

Far better to have trial by judge- I suspect great latitude will be given then

See if you can go to 'traffic school' then the ticket does not appear on your record

I was on a traffic Jury once, After five minutes of this clown ,if it was the "Gong Show" the gong would get hit

BTW we voted guilty with maximum fine

You are correct about having to be as knowledgable as a lawyer. But some things need to stay off dmv reports (read cdl drivers) and a trial by jury is your best bet to get off. Unless you really F*d up and did a dumbass a jury trial will likely result in not guilty. Judges and prosecutors and in a lot of cases the officers work together in a way that they sometimes get the benefit of the doubt. A trial by jury removes that element. Jurors are significantly more understanding and lenient on how things can be interpreted. "Did that 1 foot past the stop sign really mean he ran it? " and they remember how often they have done the same thing.

But DEFINITELY pay to have a lawyer represent you and make sure you show up to fight it. A lot of times the officer is not present and it can be dismissed. They can't reschedule it indefinitely.

Just a little infor from experiance.