mxp

Sadly, I was a victim of circumstance and now have a $355.00 ticket for arguably running a red light.

Basic story: My speed was 15-20mph as I slowed down approaching a yellow light at a "T- intersection" with traffic lights. There were no cars approaching from front at that time. Did a right hand turn, (did not full stop) cuz it was still yellow, in my opinion. After that, there were 2 other short stop signs (non-traffic light) within each other which I obeyed. Then, I saw the motorbike cop behind me with his lights. He said that I did NOT STOP at the 1st traffic light when it was red. I wasn't sure where he showed up from. Was he behind me all along? I dunno.

My past record: Clean for 20 years, with only 1 minor speeding violation 4 years ago which I did traffic school. (Does it even show up on DMV's deep search archives? or it is really wiped clean?)

I am gonna fight it, I guess it is my word against the cop. What are my chances?
My options:

1) Apply for a court appearance? Hope that motorbike cop doesnt show up. How do I tell if he was CHP? The original yellow ticket slip says Milpitas Police Dept. I stfa and a comment made was CHP WILL SHOW UP at court.

2) Use the techniques of ticket assassin. Trial by declaration. Just done a brief read and it looks good.

Please help, as I have never been to traffic court. To make matters complicated, I will be leaving the US for 1 year to work overseas by Jan 05, and I need to resolve this before the end of this year.

Thank you, AWers.

Mike

DMAudi

You have a chance of "beating" a ticket like this IF and ONLY IF you do one of the following:

1. Get a lawyer who is "connected" and can basically guarantee that your ticket will "go away" in exchange for money. This is the least likely scenario unless you live in a particularly corrupt area.

2. Show up on the day of court, dressed well. Look around, you will likely be approached by a DA or the cop. They may or may not offer you a plea-bargain. Chances are often good that they will offer you a plea in order to speed things along and get you (and them) out of there quickly. If you do see the cop, you might even approach him and ask what the chances are of a
plea-bargain.

Note that this will only work if you have not pissed off the cop when you got the ticket, and have not tried any wannabe-lawyer tactics prior to the court date. The more of a nuisance you are, the less likely you are to get away without points.

Your goal here is to pay money and avoid points. You will almost certainly NOT beat the ticket.

The thing is, the cops and DAs couldn't possibly care less about the points, unless you did something that was so heinous or egregiously wrong that they will want to punish you. In your case, it sounds like a disagreement on the facts. You believe the light was yellow, the cop believes the light was red.

mxp

So, yeah it's my word against his. If he shows up in court.

Currently, I have the option to pay $369.00 and go to traffic school. But, I wanted to fight it (maybe the cop won't show up) and see what happens. If I lose in court, will I still get options?

What shall I do? I will be going back to Australia to work for a year, and returning in early 2006. I am a legal US resident.

Thanks for your views, DMAudi. But, what do you mean by plea bargaining? What do you say to a DA or cop when u wish to strike a deal?

Sorry for the noob questions. Never been to court and never watched Law and Order on the TV.

PS: I was cited on Sept 11, and it took 6 weeks for the court notice to show up. Does it mean that the cop is quite un-organized/slack. Maybe he won't show up in court. (sigh!)

DMAudi

The court and the police depts work out the schedule. The cop just shows up to work and either goes to court or doesn't. Do not bet on the cop not showing up.

Plea bargaining basically amounts to agreeing to plead guilty to a lesser charge in order to waste less of everyone's time. Remember, cops, judges and attorneys are people too. They're lazy just like the rest of us. (Some might argue MORE lazy, but that's another topic.) The less of a hassle you represent, the more likely they are to be lenient. (There are always exceptions to this, but they are just that - exceptions.)

It's more likely they will come to find you, but if you do approach the cop first, be respectful and say something along the lines of "I wanted to ask you if there is any sort of plea agreement that can be reached beforehand, to save everyone some time and trouble. I still believe the light was yellow when I went through it, but it would probably be easier on everyone if we didn't have to spend court time arguing it."

Since you aren't going to be here for some time, the points may not really matter much, but it's best to avoid them if at all possible.

<b>Since you have the option to pay the fine and take traffic school, that is the avenue I would take.</b> Traffic school can be done online nowadays, and ordinarily this will eliminate the points from the ticket. You then have to stay clean for something like 18 months.

As far as the delay in the paperwork, that's pretty normal. The courts are slow. It does not indicate anything about the cop's organizational skills, in all likelyhood.

Good luck!

mxp

Thank you DMAudi. Your views have been extremely valuable.

DMAudi

Any time! Have fun in Oz.

mxp

This is one avenue I am willing to take.

I will spend the time and trouble to put the case together and send it in. What is your view of this Trial by Declaration?

Thanks.

DMAudi

I'll read about it... let you know in a few

DMAudi

The process that you go through with TicketAssassin takes time. The correspondence with the court will take weeks, most likely. I forget when you said you would be departing, but the timeline for fighting the ticket by declaration may be too long.

One of the primary benefits of that method, if it is legitimate, is that you can request another trial if you are not satisfied with the initial results. Again, this may conflict with your timeline for going to Australia.

I am unfamiliar with this aspect of California Law, though if the guy who wrote that site is being truthful, his credentials as a "comedy traffic school" instructor would make me think he does have a chance of knowing a thing or two about how the system works.

One thing that concerns me is that his site seems to be out of date. The latest vehicle code he has posted is from 2001. It's almost 2005 now. Is it possible the clause in the law that allows this technique has changed? I don't know. Do you have time to sift through the CVC to find out if it is still valid?

In the end, it's your $25, if you decide to register with that site and get the information he is selling. But to me, it smells a little hinkey, and reminds me of sites that I have read about people contesting the validity of court proceedings because of the gilt-edged "admiralty" flags in the front of the courtroom... But that's a conspiracy theory for another time.

I guess the $25 isn't much to lose, but you might want to email the guy first and ask him what a likely timeframe would be for this kind of trial. For me, I would want to dig into the CVC and find out more details of this on my own before going on the say-so of someone's website. I might even make a quick call to a lawyer that specializes in traffic court and ask a couple of questions. Many lawyers don't mind answering a quick question if you catch them at the right time.