Issued a ticket I did not deserve! (law, office)

[cjtex23]

Please don't waste your money on hiring an attorney. Go to court and present your case to the Judge during your hearing. Present only the facts of the case, not the emotion. Outline everything that happened that day and offer your account in writing to the Court. They may opt to enter it in to the record or not, depending on the Judge. Although they threaten to charge you an increased amount if you choose to contest your charge, they normally don't do that. It scares people and allows the Judge to exercise discretion depending on the case. Again, just be sure to present the facts of the case, not how you feel about it. They don't care about that. I brought my only citation to court and presented the facts of the case. I won and the Judge threw my citation out and warned the cop about his behavior and bad stop. The police followed me around town for six months after that, probably because I made an a** out of the cop by showing the Judge what he did to me. Although it was an aggravation to go through the whole thing, what's right is right and I didn't do anything wrong. And by the way, the cop does not have to tell you what they've stopped you for until they return your lic and reg to you, and although an inconvenience, 25 mins is not an unreasonable amount of time to hold someone on the side of the road. They need to find out who you are and your history and that doesn't happen quickly sometimes. Good luck and I'm sorry you had to go through with this. I hope you win!

[Mighty Hd]

Originally Posted by bentlebee

That is almost the same amount as having to pay for the ticket, or maybe more...or am I missing something here?

They only thing is you might not have to take the 4 hours of traffic school....which takes less than half the time (you can have other tabs open and switch while waiting for the amount of time to be up), and with the lawyer you might not have to pay it or if you loose.....

You are only allowed to take the traffic school 5 times in a lifetime.

I just assume pay the lawyer and let him stick it to the agency. You'll feel good in the long run.

[xlabel]

I'd just pay the ticket and not even give them the satisfaction of inflating thier ego even more, judges and cops really get off on watching you grovel and squirm. It happens to a lot of people it makes you mad as hell but if you go to court it'll probably make you angrier, why let them get to you. It happened to me, I recieved an $86 seatbelt ticket and I wasn't even driving, my friend got pulled over for speeding, they let him go on the ticket but gave me the seatbelt ticket, I was livid. It took me several days to cool down. Look at it this way, what about all the stuff they didn't catch you doing, everyone has run a red light or stop sign or sped a liitle bit, even if by accident. Over a lifetime of safe driving what does the $141.00 ticket break down to, pennies a day or less? Why waste money on an attorney, they are just another cog in the great American injustice wheel, they are part of the problem,not the solution. I wouldn't even bother with the traffic school, heck with it, let them raise your insurance a few bucks, at least you'd be giving your money to the insurance co. and not the boys in blue and thier crooked robed accomplices with thier traffic school. Don't count on the cop not showing up for court either, they get paid overtime from a special federal fund to appear in court on thier days off, so they are very unlikely to miss. Don't let them ruin your day, laugh it off and just realize that we have worthless cops like that because the burger joint wasn't hiring that day.

[HUEY P]

If you do fight the ticket hopefully you get Judge Dominguez,he is fair about his decisions.

[Mozart271]

I feel for you, and I agree with the suggestions to set a court date and calmly present your case (you don't need a lawyer for a stop sign violation). You may well come out very well, at the least with a "withhold".

Also, as someone who has gotten a couple of tickets I thought were unfair, I recommend you take some deep breaths, and try not to take it too personally. Cops are not selecting you out to be the target of their rudeness, they deal with petty criminals all day long and they get jaded and hardened as a result--so they can end up treating an honest person like you in a rude manner.

I am a female physician who years ago (I was maybe 38 at the time, and I'm now 54) was driving a nice car outside of Jacksonville on the freeway. It was early morning on a Sunday, there was little traffic, and I mindlessly got going about 70 in a 55 mph zone. I got pulled over ( I knew I was speeding)--what was the first thing the cop said to me? "Is this your car?" I dearly wanted to say, "No, it's my pimp's"--but I wisely resisted. I got a ticket, for which I did the school and paid the fine. Lesson learned.

[Nebuttiesguess]

Thanks for all the responses everyone!
I guess I will just pay the ticket and do the traffic school since I just can't risk the money it could cost me If I lost my case.
I wish they could be specific in how much the costs would be. The way they put it..."Up to $500.00", is so intimidating! Is this to discourage people from trying to stand up for their rights?
Someone suggested that I at least find out who this cop's Captain is to report it. and then go to him and say... Even though I am going to pay this because I can't risk loosing in a his word against my word scenario in court, I felt you should know what really took place here....and then explain what the cop did. They said it's probably not the first time he's behaved like this.
I'm not sure if I would do this but at the same time, all this intimidation just enables them to keep harassing innocent people. It sucks!

[bmackbm]

This story is so similar to mine, and it happened in the same area. I had my cruise control on 60 and this sheriff pulls me over, he turned his light on and then turned it off so I didn't think he was pulling me over then he turned on his light again. He said he clocked me going 72 miles an hour. I explained that I had my cruise control on 60, which was the speed limit. He said there was nothing wrong with his radar and he had it calibrated last week so it was right and that I should have my speed control checked out. He also said I had three options and proceeded to return to his car and it seemed like at least 15 minutes and then came back with a $209 ticket. He was very smug and wouldn't even think that he possibly had made a mistake. I also am 62 years old and cannot afford a 209 ticket. My ticket also stated that if I contest the case and lose I have to pay an additional $500. I received several tickets when I was younger and deserved all of them. I rolled through a stop sign once, and I was speeding once. I deserved those tickets. However today I had my speed control on and know I was going 60. When I returned home, I connected my GPS to my car, took it out on highway 19 and set the cruise control on 65. The GPS said I was going 63. I really want to fight this because I know I'm right, but I can't afford the extra 500 if the judge decides to take his word. I have no way of proving this except that my husband was in the car with me. I feel violated. I've always trusted law enforcement, but I don't know if I will ever be able to now.

[cupper3]

I have had some success in talking to the prosecutor office a day or two in advance of a court date, and they dropped the charges.

There is also the chance the cop won't show up (happened to me once), and as there is no witness, case dismissed.

Worth a try.

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by Nebuttiesguess

I left my apartment just a 1/2 a block N. of 62nd Ave N. and came to the Stop sign @ 62 Ave. just west of 4th St.

All of a sudden he did put his lights on and I promptly turned into 12 st N right there off of 62nd ave.
KEEP IN MIND, ALL OF THIS HAPPENED WITHIN ONE BLOCK WEST OF 4TH ST, AND 12 ST, ON 62 AVE N. This included my stopping at the MLK 9th St traffic light. Probably not more than 1/4 of a mile all together?

Wouldnt the distance between 4th st and where you pulled over on 12th st be 8 blocks ?
If you think you've been wronged in some way you can always contest the ticket and plead your case in traffic court but be aware you are sunk if that cop had his video camera running and you did in fact run a stop sign..
Good luck..

PS. just noticed this is a post from 2008, and i guess its kinda pointless to ask the op how'd it turn out ? as he's never been on the forum since..

[ghostrider7811]

Go to Traffic Court and explain your side.

IMPORTANT......take some time and make a nice large drawing, do the best you can. Make it no smaller than a large piece of poster board. Use Hot Wheel cars to show your car, the cop car..etc....
Again, make sure your drawing is to scale, or super good reguardless.
Take a very photos to make your case.
The more time you spend to make your case, the more stuff you show the better
Good luck,
You will not pay $500 bucks, that is for the problem drivers.