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Speeding ticket

  

1
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Would you contest a first speeding ticket of 27 over against a state trooper?


5 Answers
2

Definitely not.


2

Sure. My philosophy is, "Admit Nothing". But you have to prepare a defense.

In your case I'd go with "Sudden Unintended Acceleration"

You can scour the internet and find thousands of cases of it. It even has its own Wikipedia page.

You want to print all that up so when you request it be put into evidence it makes an impressive "thud" when you drop it on the judge's bench.

Cite a couple of cases in your file that resulted in accidents but cite more cases where the drivers reports of Sudden Unintended Acceleration didn't result in accidents or tickets to emphasize that they had no ulterior motives.

Explain that when it happened to you you'd never heard of it before and when the cop pulled you over you were in a state of bewilderment and only after you got home and looked up on google "why would a car accelerate by itself", it all started making sense to you.

Also wear a suit and suspenders. 1/2 way through your presentation, remove your suit jacket and hook your thumbs under your suspenders. It's a "secret handshake" in the legal profession.

 

 

 


1

Did you admit to the cop you were speeding when he questioned you? (Any defense lawyer will tell you not to answer police questions.) If so that's one strike against you right off the bat.

At least part of the way you approach this has to do with how your state treats the offense. In some places that much over the posted speed limit constitutes a fairly serious crime. (For example in Virginia if you are clocked at 20 mph or more over the speed limit that is an automatic reckless driving charge with fines for three years. First offense is a misdemeanor, second is a felony.) Check into the penalties you will be facing.

If it was a township or county road your only hope might be if the speed limit was not properly set according to your state's regulations. Those regs are sometimes ignored. A friend once got out of a ticket for not coming to a complete stop because the stop sign was bogus, the township had not gone through the necessary steps to make it legal. However the chances of that are quite small and it would require a fair amount of research on your part.

You could go to court and demand discovery items such as certification of the radar, cop's speedometer, or other speed detection device and look for certification problems. They're pretty good at keeping those things calibrated though, so chances are slim to none there. Or you could go into court very apologetic and sometimes the prosecutor or judge will reduce charges, though there are no guarantees there.

You might also do an internet search on "Fight speeding ticket in [your state]" for more specific information.

Finally, if in your state the charges for going that much over the speed limit are very serious, with the reputation of prosecutors not backing down on them, you might want to consider hiring a traffic attorney. It would obviously be an expense but the court is more likely to reduce charges when an attorney is involved than for you just walking into court on your own.


0

If you can go to court, admit guilt and ask for leniency on the points and fine. 

 


0

Depends how much time and money you are willing to spend for an adequate defense. And if you have a plausible defense. Got the time and the money, go to court. 

Otherwise pay the fine and don’t do stupid stuff. Otherwise your next fine will be more. 


Language please, @kaizen


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