BTS4

My citation is missing:

- location and time of offense
- if there was an accident
- make and type is close, but incorrect
- type seems to be listed as the color of the car (e.g., Audi Silver)

Any thoughts? Anyone have a good traffic lawyer in the Boston area?

Thx

8 misbehavin

May be worth fighting it with the argument that if the trooper was negligent enough to leave off key information such as location and time, etc., how can it be said with any reasonable certainty that he correctly clocked you with radar, pacing, or whichever method he used. Most people I know who've fought incomplete citations get off with paying court costs and having the ticket thrown out. Sure beats a surcharge and points! Good luck.

Chuckie T

the first round will be with a magistrate & a rep from the MA State Police. The trooper will give an account of the offense and then the magistrate will give you the opportunity to state your case. After, the magistrate will either dismiss, offer you a "deal" in exchange for dropping your appeal (it goes on your record, etc.), or give you a chance to appear in court for "all the marbles" should he rules against you or you don't like the "deal".

In my case, the magistrate offered me $150 off a $200 fine if I agreed to drop my appeal. As for your situation, IMHO, it is highly unlikely the magistrate will let you slide due to your perceived "technicalities". If you're guilty, just pay the fine and move on.

bagodoosh

as chuckie mentioned, the first round depends on the magistrate.

i had a local officer make a mistake on the location & the speed limit. he wrote 40 in 30. i took pictures of the area including a speed limit sign. my case was that based on those errors, i believed the officer made a mistake on my speed as well. i also mentioned that i had lived in the area for a couple years and i knew better than to speed in that area. the end result was 40 in 35 and the magistrate gave me a break.

2nd round, you may have a chance of the officer not showing up, thus dismissing your case. despite the theories, i've read of people winning their case that way.

if you were doing 90 in 65 though (for example), i doubt a simple reasoning will be in your favor. so what was your speed?

BTS4

The ticket was given for 85 in 65.

bagodoosh

a few things could work in your favor:

if you have a clean record.

time of day.. you could make something up in your favor. but he may have logged it in his notes, so it could recalled during "court".

for example, day time you could say that you tried to slow down but everytime someone would come rite behind your *** and you felt you were creating a tense situation and sped up.

you could say there was someone passing you on the rite lane. you were in the middle. you believe the officer made a mistake, and his other mistakes support your suspicion.

that's all for the magistrate which will only have the officer's notes to go by. if his notes are specific you may have to improvise last minute.

you will appear in the district court where the offense was charged. look up the officer's name. maybe you can find where he lives, and if it's too far it would lessen the chance of him showing up in real court in case magistrate doesn't null your case.

good luck.

Chuckie T

I had a clean record. Crystal clean, actually: MA STEP 9. I was clocked at 35 going through the 15mph FastLane on the MA Pike. I thought I had a pretty good case as the cruiser was about 100 yards past the toll plaza (where the limit is 35mph), facing the other direction. Anyway, my record never came into question w/ the magistrate and he discounted my story immediately. As I mentioned in a previous post, he offered to knock the $200 fine to $50 if I paid right then and there and dropped my appeal. Needless to say, I jumped at the deal.

I'm not sure making something up is such a good idea. Lying under oath is also a crime.

BTS4

Did they reduce the points, too? It isn't clear how often (if at all) this happens in MA.

bwherry

If not, that's a sure-fire dismissal (and is what happened to me sometime last year). Officer didn't check a box -- I brought that up in my defense, and biggity-bam, not responsible.

BTW, when I was in the traffic court deal that day (with the local magistrate and the State Police representative, as everyone else has mentioned) <b>not one single person</b> was found "not respnsible", except for me, due to the method in which my speed was determined not being indicated. So in lieu of no-box-checked, your defense had better be extraordinary. Also, <b>every single person</b> was offered at least a $100 reduction in the fine if they chose to not appeal the decision, no matter how retarded their excuse. So, your worst case of just showing up and saying, "I really don't think I was going that fast -- there must have been an error" should at least save you $100.

HTH,

Brian

Chuckie T

No, I became a STEP 10 for a few years and it did increase my premium but I was guilty.