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I'm supposedly in a situation where I need to do this again. An "Officer doesn't show" kind of thing. It is still true that they have to come to Court! So.. How many others have sucessfully fought?
It's been decades since I last had a ticket, but I went to court for the lions share of those I racked up and "won" easily 90% of those. "Won" for me was no points on my driving record and no insurance increase, I always had to pay at Least court costs ($30~50 IIRC) and about half the time I'd be paying some other no-points traffic fine as well.
I did "win" a small number of cases when the office was no longer on the force, but 100% of the "did not show" cases were rescheduled.
As for tactics, I simply went in well dressed and respectful (as well as being respectful to the LEO at the time of the ticket) and asked for leniency. more times than not the LEO would offer that I was very cooperative at the incident and suggest leniency would not be inappropriate. Pretty simple stuff, I just had a bad speeding habit for a number of years before learning that it was cheaper to get my 'fix' on the weekends at racetracks.
I've been in court hundreds of times, although not as the defendant. It depends upon what the charge was. Some charges, people don't get off, no matter what their excuse. Other charges, they might not get off, but the judge will reduce the fine.
If you want to plead not guilty, a trial will be scheduled, which wouldn't be worth it unless the charge was really going to mess up your life (third DUI?). You have to hire a lawyer and it drags on for months.
It's impossible to answer your question without knowing what the charge is and where you are going to be going to court.
Haven't had a ticket in years but when I was younger, at least where I live, the cops are actually paid to be at court as part of their shift. So the possibility of a "no show" was nearly non existent. In the rare cases that it did happen, there was about a 50/50 chance they would dismiss or reschedule another court date. In short, I've only had 1-2 tickets dismissed by an officer not showing in the past ~25 years of driving.
You're far better off fighting a ticket based on technical procedure than hoping the officer doesn't show up.
I'm supposedly in a situation where I need to do this again. An "Officer doesn't show" kind of thing. It is still true that they have to come to Court! So.. How many others have sucessfully fought?
You are "supposedly in a situation"...(?)
A "kind of thing"...(?)
WTH does all this mean? If you have a ticket then decide if you want to fight it. You can fight it if there are some kind of issues with it, or you can ask for leniency as someone already mentioned. If your supposed situation is something you actually did, then you should go ask for leniency and admit to poor judgment at the particular time of the supposed situation and suggest to the court that the supposed situation will not (supposedly) ever happen again.
If your ticket is a minor moving violation, you may want to inquire with the citing authority/attorney/clerk of the court before your appearance date if they are willing to meet with you and discuss the ticket. Often, they are just as motivated to make the ticket go away with minimum time/effort/expense as you are.
You do not need an attorney for this approach. It's a phone call and a minor amount of your time to pursue. If it works to get a favorable outcome with minimal effort, so be it.
Relying upon a "no show" to get a dismissal is a very weak tactic on your part. Better, IMO, to be pro-active in advance for your best interests.
I was on a jury deciding the guilt or innocence of a young man who was accused of reckless driving and resisting arrest. The officer who charged him showed up. We found the defendant not guilty, as the officer had a long history of abusing his authority. Since there were no witnesses, this was relevant and the officer, under cross examination, "lost it".
I successfully fought a speeding ticket for driving 13 mph over. It is fairly easy to do especially if it's over radar. The key to winning is not to have said anything incriminating to the officer during the stop. After that it is simply a matter of formally requesting all the calibration and maintenance records, copy of FCC license, etc. Once they received that, it was quickly dismissed.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,572 posts, read 81,167,557 times
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I have never been let off, but twice I was able to get the fine reduced.
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Supposedly in a situation?
