Speeding ticket - need advice

go to court. you may want to call the prosecutor before you go and explain things to him. be calm. be polite. you may be able to save yourself a trip to the courthouse.

btw, as i recall wisconsin may have some legal authority that you do not NEED a radar gun to be convicted of speeding. cant quite recall on that. good luck.

In every state that I am aware, the officer must use some type of measurement..Vascar (measurement against lines on the road or landmarks versus the stopwatch, laser, radar, or his own odometer).

His saying that he can tell when someone is speeding wouldn't stand up in any state where I've experienced speeding infractions.

My advise is to appear in the court or magistrate's office at the designated time, and I'll give 10-1 odds that Barney Fife does not show up for this one and you walk.

You were going to fast pay the ticked and drive slower. He could have made it out for 50 and then your twice the speed limit. And were you in a school zone?

Go to court, he won't show, ticket gets thrown out. He shows; give the judge the same argument you gave here and a)the ticket get's thrown out or b)you get a reduced ticket or c)you pay the whole thing anyways.

Don't go to court, eventually your insurance company finds out and you get to pay extra for the next seven years; in some cases it's a few hundred dollars extra each year. This is also the case for a minor traffic violation like double parking.

It's too valuable an issue to just pay and hope it goes away.

Yeah definetly go to your local courthouse and ask a county sherrif or the local magistrate about how to challenge this, and always be polite and understanding cuz they might sympathyze with you. I am pretty sure that what he did is messed up.

Well, how fast were you really going?

Wisconsin wrote:

Today an officer issued me a speeding ticket for 39 in a 25. When I asked to see his radar he said he did not hhave me locked in on radar and that "he can tell when someone is speeding?"

WTF? He said that he can spot speeding "down to an exact science and can tell when you are speeding".

I told him I would see him in court and he said it would be his word against mine.

Any legal advice? I have a lcean driving record with 0 points and I want to fight this.

to be honest with you, most police officers can eyeball it very well. they have, after all, been doing this as their job and they likely patrol the same "speed traps". and it seems rather unlikely that the cop would be off by 14 MPH.

go to court. if he doesn't show up, you'll likely get out of it. if he does, it's your word against the cop's word, the cop will win darn near every time. but at least you tried.

I agree that you should call and find out the law/rules within your state. My friend I work with had a similar situation. He wrote a letter describing exactly what happened. The state returned a letter saying the charges/violation had been dropped.

I wouldn't suggest using the tone, "I'll see you in court", but I would be firm. (I'm not ripping on you for saying that to the cop, I would have been upset too).

So my point is that you should definitely fight it.

Luke wrote:

My advise is to appear in the court or magistrate's office at the designated time, and I'll give 10-1 odds that Barney Fife does not show up for this one and you walk.

it will not work that way in wisco. his ticket will have an "initial appearance" date and time at the top. THE DEFENDANT is the one that needs to show for that 1st appearance. barny fife need not appear. if the defendant fails to show he is found guilty by default.

the court will then set the case for a 2nd hearing which will just be a meeting with the defendant and the prosecutor. the meeting is to discuss resolution of the case.

if the case is not resolved then, at that time the court sets the case for trial. then if barny does not show the case could be dismissed.

call the prosecutor ahead of time and try to work it out.

note that in wisco some charges do not appear on your dr. if it is amended to "interfer with stop or sign" that will not appear on your record.

Go to court. It's worth the effort. The cop might say that he was following you and he used his speedometer. That would be tough to refute.

Sue the officer and take him to Judge Judy. Judy knows truth.

william. wrote:

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I wouldn't suggest using the tone, "I'll see you in court", but I would be firm. (I'm not ripping on you for saying that to the cop, I would have been upset too).

he should only be upset if he wasn't actually speeding. you'll note that he never mentions how fast he was actually going (if he wasn't speeding, he'd say it, i'm sure).

my guess, he actually WAS going 39, just pissed that the cop didn't show him the radar. if you were speeding, ya got what you deserved, life lesson learned, pay the fine and slow down next time.

yeah, I'm glad he got busted too. I live in a neighborhood where the speed limit is 25mph and people are constantly driving by over the speed limit. I'm glad you are finally getting what you deserve. However, back on subject, you should show up in court, say nothing more than "I'm sorry and this is my first violation" and hopefully they will let you take the driver improvement course and dismiss that ticket.

wstuart wrote:

yeah, I'm glad he got busted too.

Why are you glad he got busted? You don't even know if he was speeding. He asked to see the reading so it would appear that HE doesn't think he was.

yeh you're right. but he wouldn't have gotten busted if he wasn't speeding. Unless the cop is making all that up, which is highly unlikely.

I hate speed limits. I especially hate unnecessarily slow speed limits, like where the sign says 25 but traffic naturally moves at 40.

Fight the ticket.

Thank you for those who show support. I simply asked the officer nicely to see the radar to confirm the speed of 38 on the ticket and I was very suprised when he said he did not have it. He also waited 1.5 miles and inclding 2 stop sign before issuing the ticket.

I respect the officer and workers who say speeding is wrong. I have no tickets in 21 years of drinving at over 30,000 miles per year. I did not feel like I was speeding becasue I was going uphill and preparing for a stop.

I would rather fight hte ticket and no than just pay and go along with the theory that I "thought" you were speeing. Is not the burden of proof on the officer to show I was speeding? This goes to a bigger issue.

Last year, I got an 80 in a 65 on a Kentucky interstate. It was my 3rd in about 6 months, so I had to fight it. They give you option of going to traffic school and said it wouldn't go on your record, etc. I was skeptical and decided to fight it...

Went down to Kentucky ready for court. Bailiff's a dick. Judge comes in and calls me up. "Of course you have the right to a trial, but if you lose we will seek the maximum fine of $300." I opted for traffic school. It felt more like the burden was on me to prove innocence than the other way around.

Went to traffic school for a few hours and it didn't show up on my record. Nice. Should've done that to begin with.

But anyway, if you want to fight, search some stuff online. There are tons of free resources out there. I was able to find out what public docs (i.e. officer's radar log) to subpoena, what questions to ask the office (did you recalibrate the gun before and after use), etc. I had charts of the area, pics, was primed to win if I didn't pussy out. Would've been nice to tear into the cop on the stand.

Observing people before me though, a few people (i.e. older women) would go up and say they hadn't had a ticket in 10 years and get the judge to throw it out if they don't receive another ticket within 6 months. Might try that too.

Legal Eagle wrote:

Go to court, he won't show, ticket gets thrown out. He shows; give the judge the same argument you gave here and a)the ticket get's thrown out or b)you get a reduced ticket or c)you pay the whole thing anyways.

Don't go to court, eventually your insurance company finds out and you get to pay extra for the next seven years; in some cases it's a few hundred dollars extra each year. This is also the case for a minor traffic violation like double parking.

It's too valuable an issue to just pay and hope it goes away.

If found guilty, you can also be assessed court costs I believe.

Slow down people are out there