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i have in court, with the help of a friend of mine in the prosecutors office. one for failure to show proof of insurance, and one for failure to provide proof of registration. bot of which i had, just not in the car i was driving at the time.
I guess it depends on where you live, but in Nevada I got a speeding ticket and hired an attorney. He went to court for me and it was knocked down to a non-moving violation. I still had to pay the fine, but no traffic school and no points. Attorneys advertise all over Las Vegas for that type of service and it's often fairly inexpensive. Mine cost around $120. Not sure if the law allows that elsewhere though.
Here, in Las Vegas it can very time-consuming to fight a ticket, and yes, the officer must show up, otherwise dismissed.
I tried that route last time I got a ticket, and went to court first to plead guilty/not guilty, I plead not guilty, and they offered to knock $90 off the fine. I rejected the offer, Then, they set another court date, and at that court meeting, they usually lower the fine even more, my $485 fine being lowered now to $300. And I stupidly rejected the offer. Third court date, the motorcycle cop shows up, and I'm charged the entire $485!!!
What kept me going, taking the risk? At the 2nd court meeting, 5 at the court trial showed up, but no police officers. Charges dismissed with all 5 of them!
AARP has claimed that it's all 50-50, the chance your charge will be dismissed, so, with time on my hands, I decided to take the risk and lost!
My terrific crimes: I couldn't get my glove compartment open to fetch my title and insurance cards, and late night, 2am, in an unfamiliar area of the city, I made a right turn onto the shoulder of the road, rather than the road itself. 2am! Not a car in sight!
Now my roommate went through the 3 hoops, and he won! No officer showed up!
I pay an additional $100 over the ticket for deferred adjudication, this way the ticket is dismissed after 90 days, and you never have to worry about it. No problems with insurance or driving record.
last speeding ticket I got was probably 30 years ago and running late for a realtor meeting I was driving like an idiot, speeding & tailgating when a Highway patrol pulled me over. He had me come back to his car and when I opened the back door (car at a bit of an angle) it flew open and smashed into the guard rail which seemed to anger the trooper. He didn't get me for the tailgating but the speeding ticket was something like a 75 in a 60 and would have resulted in points.
I elected to fight the ticket with no real strategy in mind other than plead for mercy. DA came to me at court, explained that the trooper was not there and asked if I would plead guilty to 69 in a 60 and have the violation stay off my record to which I agreed.
Going to court is part of the police officer's duty. He's on the clock and getting paid.
If the officer can not make it to court, usually the police dispatcher calls the court secretary and gets the hearing rescheduled. That happens even if the officer has been in route and suddenly can no longer make it. No matter you are sitting there all day, your hearing doesn't come up on the court calendar.
Someone will try to locate you and let you know you have been rescheduled.
I suggest that hoping the officer doesn't show up for the hearing is not the best strategy.
I got into an accident while making an extremely sharp and awkward, but legal, left turn at a stop sign onto a busy street. The turn was dangerous enough that I actually sat there at the stop sign wondering if it was illegal and I should turn back, but I concluded it must be legal, so I made it. This was a couple of years ago near the end of the snowiest winter ever, so there were big snowbanks everywhere obstructing the view. I didn't see the other driver in time and I don't think he saw me at all -- as I slammed on the brakes I could see his face, and he clearly had no idea he was about to hit me -- and he ended up taking off the entire front end of my car. (By the way, not only was neither of us at all injured, I didn't even really feel anything during the collision.)
The cop who showed up at the scene was actually a little apologetic when he told me he technically had to give me a ticket for running the stop sign, because by law the intersection has to be clear before you proceed, and it obviously wasn't because of the accident. He even hinted that I should challenge the ticket. So I did, told the judge the story, and it was dismissed within a few minutes. I had to pay court fees, and I agreed to the odd stipulation that while insurance companies weren't supposed to hold the ticket against me, I also wasn't supposed to hold it against the court if they did.
Side note: The judge was like the coolest guy in the world. One of the other defendants was a 17-year-old kid who got a DUI. The judge asked him if he was willing to agree to participate in a program for underage offenders where the DUI wouldn't go on his record as long as he performed some community service and met with the town drug counselor. He said "drug counselor" in this really sarcastic voice, as if he couldn't believe that he was required to subject the kid to something so pointless and stupid.
The city I was living in when I got my first ticket back in 1971 had a great way to almost guarantee that you wouldn't fight your ticket. If you wanted to contest your ticket, you were given a day to show up at 9:00 a.m. They'd get to you when they got to you....it could be six hours later. When your time came up, you appeared before some official to "formally" protest your ticket. At that time, you were given a court date to appear in a couple of weeks or you could just pay your ticket at that time. Soooooo, they knew that most people weren't going to miss two days of work to contest a ticket unless it was very, very important to do so.
I got a totally bogus ticket, but just went ahead and paid it. Wasn't worth it to contest.
I have only gotten one ticket that I felt was wrong, but I was only 16 and my Dad wouldn't let me fight it. I just paid the other tickets because every time I got one, I deserved it. That wa only a couple of times since I don't get pulled over very often.
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the motorcycle cop shows up, and I'm charged the entire $485!!!
