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You've decided you don't want to deal with the consequences of a speeding ticket Traffic Ticket Consequences such as fines and insurance rate increases. What can you do to successfully fight a speeding ticket?

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

If you decide to contest a speeding ticket after scoping out your options Scoping Out Your Traffic Ticket, you'll want to prepare carefully. You're entitled to do what's called "discovery" by getting copies of the police officer's notes, the police report, and the maintenance records for any radar or laser equipment the officer used.

It's a good idea to go to traffic court ahead of your court date and observe trials similar to yours, so you understand the traffic trial process Contesting Your Traffic Ticket.

You'll want to take photos of the intersection or stretch of road where you got the ticket at the same time of day you received the ticket (and under the same weather conditions if possible). It's especially important to get photos of any obstructions in the line of sight between your vehicle and the police vehicle, such as moving traffic, power lines, signs, bends in the road and so forth.

If you think it will help the judge understand, you might consider making a diagram showing the roads and the locations of your car, the patrol car and any obstructions in between.

You'll also want to contact any witnesses identified in the police report, as well as witnesses who may have been in the car with you.

General Defenses

Speeding is a strict liability offense, which means that your intent in driving over the speed limit is not an issue and does not matter. If you were caught exceeding the speed limit, you were breaking the law. There are, however, some defenses to a speeding ticket, including:

• Your excessive speed was caused by dangerous actions of law enforcement officers
• You encountered a sudden emergency which could only be avoided by driving your car above the speed limit
• You were not driving the speeding vehicle
• Your vehicle was not the vehicle that was speeding
• The police officer who gave you the speeding citation was out of his jurisdiction (the place where he has authority to write a traffic ticket), the officer did not engage in "hot pursuit" to stop you, and state law did not extend the officer's jurisdiction

Radar Defenses

A radar system, like the kind used by police to monitor traffic, simply tells the operator how fast the vehicle with the most dominant reflective surface is going, but can't measure distance or pick out one moving vehicle among several. It's up to the officer to make the call as to which car was speeding.

One of the best defenses against a radar unit is that the radar system picked up another vehicle or more reflective surface instead of your vehicle. Reflective or interfering surfaces can include:

• Metal traffic or other types of signs (even neon signs)
• Utility lines
• Power stations
• Vehicles moving around you in dense traffic

One way to prove the possibility of an inaccurate radar reading due to obstructions is by using the photos you took of the scene to show that the officer would have had to "shoot" the radar through an object, perhaps another vehicle, between his vehicle and yours.

A less reliable and more time-consuming defense is to try to prove that the radar system wasn't properly maintained and so wasn't working properly. To prove this, you have to subpoena the maintenance records of the radar system, as well as the maintenance records of the tuning forks sometimes used to adjust the radar systems to make them accurate. This isn't a defense you should attempt without an attorney to represent you.

Another radar system defense is to prove that the officer wasn't properly trained and qualified to operate a radar system, and in fact operated the radar improperly. For this defense you would need:

• The police department's admission that the officer wasn't trained up to the standards of other officers, and
• The officer's testimony on cross-examination that shows his lack of knowledge on proper operation of the system.

Laser Gun Defenses

Laser speed guns used by police can measure distance and calculate speed by comparing the change in distance against a specific span of time. Fighting a laser gun speeding ticket is more difficult, as it's harder to claim the gun was measuring some object other than your vehicle.

Many of the defenses to speeding tickets are complex and technical, so it almost always makes sense to hire an attorney to represent you properly.

Related Resources on Lawyers.com

- Defenses to Speeding Violations
- Traffic violations articles and information
- Selecting a lawyer
- Find a Traffic Violations Lawyer
- Visit our Traffic Citations Message Board for more help

Web Resources

- State Speed Laws from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration