Several suggestions that friends have successfully used to argue speeding tickets:

1) request continuance -- most tickets written by specific trooper have predetermined court date. Trooper will be there. With continuance, it is unlikely that trooper will get new date.

2) contest equipment & trooper training -- has equipment been properly maintained, has it been CALIBRATED by qualified facility, and has trooper had training and continuing education to properly use equipment.

3) calibration can work in your favor, too. If it shows slower speed, you may have been travelling within speed limit. If it shows less than 2 percent variance, you can argue that radar equipment is faulty. With faulty equipment, another tactic that I would suggest is -- do any of your local TV stations have an "on your side" reporter. This could invalidate every ticket written using that equipment. Law enforcement would not want to face that evidence in court or on the air.

Main advice is don't let law enforcement intimitate you. They protect and serve us the public. In the end, you may SMILE.

I respect job that law enforcement does and appreciate their service; however, overzealous and uneven traffic enforcement is both unfair and unjust. In Louisiana, we have local sheriff departments patrolling rural interstate highways to fill their coffers while these same parishes have rampant drug problems -- usually meth and/or crack. Get these drugs out of community and solve some of the social ills they attract and perpetuate.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/radar-detector1.htm


The former California Patrol Officer, as already mentioned, has given you the best advice. I've attached a link about radar - specifically related to your case is the fact that the patrol car was moving so that speed must be taken into consideration and perhaps there was a miscalculation....

Good luck and don't let them intimidate you.

I second this, now Sharon has me curious

what is the difference between a dead skunk in the road and a dead lawyer in the road?
There's skid marks before the skunk.

What do you call 10,000 dead lawyers?
A nice start

anyway... I get pulled over because my name ends in a vowel

Not to speak for Bigs, but the wheels of justice are known to move slowly, probably not much has happened yet.

This won't do you any good for the upcoming date in court, but man, you gotta get yourself a high quality radar detector! I don't care if I'm going 1 MPH under the speed limit, if I hear that baby scream at me, I slowwww down.

Your case reminds me of this instance a few years ago in New Hampshire. I was driving up the turnpike and as I approached the Rochester Toll booth (going North), I picked up the troopers radar from a bit more than 3/4's of a mile away.

I was, at the time I picked the radar up, going about 60-65 MPH but immediately slowed down and coasted towards the toll. The cop, a known and hated over-compensating masculine female trooper, was parked facing traffic just in front of the toll booths. I'd say about 100 yards away from the tolls.

As I hit the 35 MPH limit toll approach zone, I was already under 20 MPH. I passed the cop and she immediately flipped on her lights and turned around. I went through the toll and then pulled over as she signaled to me that it was my time to pay the speeding tax.

She comes up to my car and tells me that I was going 61 MPH in a 35 MPH zone, a mere 100 yards in front of the toll booth, in the RAIN!!

I found out a short time later that anything exceeding 25 MPH over the speed limit there is considered a more severe speeding infraction (felony??)!!

So, I do some research online before my court date and found some interesting information that conveyed to me that it is basically illegal for troopers to park in front of toll booths to target motorists.

The judge, of course, has never heard such nonsense (I printed out copies for him and the cop) and while stating my evidence, the cop actually interrupted me and mocked me for finding 'stuff on the Internet'.

Not only did I present this information, but I also commented on the likelihood of me going 61 mph in the rain 100 yards before I had to stop and pay a toll, all the while already knowing about the radar being used three quarters of a mile away.

The judge found me guilty, but did say that he agreed with me about probably not going 61, so he marked my ticket down to 58.

Yippeee.

As I was leaving the court, the cop timidly approaches me and asked for the information I had presented in my 'trial'. I gave it to her, though I felt like telling her that her hair bun was so tight that it looked like her forehead was going to break through her skin.

Anyways, that was three years ago and to this day, I have not seen one cop parked out in front of the toll booth. It used to be a regular occurrencence.

My point? That maybe you can't win your fight, but you might be able to make a change for the better!

Oh, and I also read that for a radar ticket to be valid, they need to clock you from within around a 1/4 mile! At least in NH/ME they do. You may want to check into that.

I get my court date next week.

That would be fine by me.

I don't have radar detector because I never drive fast enough to get a ticket (or so I thought). I have 107k miles on my vehicle in just under three years. I log a lot of miles each week and see a ton of cops. I've never had a problem until this guy says I'm going 15mph faster than I actually was.

Now that's desperation.

tony went to the da yesterday, as court was set for a day he was working graveyards. got the ticket changed to a non moving violation. also got the fine reduced by about $75. still ridiculous, but it'll have to do!

good luck bigs with yours.

What a thread...





...ya just can't buy stuff like this.









Bum murder raps is next.



I can't wait.

hey, i HAVE AN ALIBI!!
and a good lawyer.

May I suggest a different fitting...or new delivery system?




I mean when the same thing keeps breaking...........


...ya foller?

the problem is vibration..every time the pump kicks on, it'll rattle the pipe--it's about 200 feet down, a lot of pipe shaking and shimmying. but yeah, we're trying to locate some schedule 80, rather than going back to the same fitting. it's the third time in 10 years that it's broken, so it's not happening often. just a pain when it does happen.
especially considering i feel like crap with a cold, it's about 38 degrees, and raining.

Are you telling me...are YOU telling ME you've been using sched. 40??






What's the matter with that imbecile Trolly?

when we did it before, we replaced with what was there. but i asked him today if there was something better to use, since the problem keeps recurring in the exact same spot. neither one of us had a well before buying this house, so we're novices at that sort of thing. so he asked at the hardware store...they suggested 80, but of course they don't carry it.

and it's saturday. so good luck finding a place that does carry it.

happened last time on a wknd too. what luck.


oh, and i'm going to tell him you called him an imbecile. you're gonnnnnnaaaa geeeeet it....

!!

Well if you don't tell him then he'll never know.


He's not back yet..is he?





What are you wearing now?

Boy.


Some MILT she is.

Either that or Trolly came home.


Get a fitting....give a fitting I guess.

Looks like I hijacked the railroad thread.

sorry mort, had stuff to do.

Well I guess so!

March 14

^^^ Was railroaded.

^^^

Was monorailed.

^^^ Red lined out of Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

^^^

Sold the Sweet Pickles bus for tree fiddy at the local chop shop.

^^^ Currently painting yellow brick road alternate route.

^^^

Looking forward to a new way to be yellowbrickroaded

^^^ Had 20 Century Schizoid Man played at his HS graduation party.

Interesting day to say the least.

I am sitting in a room with about 40 people, they call them one at a time with the State Trooper that wrote the ticket. Each Trooper had 2-3 cases. After about an hour, there are no more Troopers in the room, but there are at least 20 of us sitting there. We all had the same Trooper! He showed up late.

They called me basically in the middle of the 20 person group.

Several people in front of me complained of the Trooper citing them for a speed higher than they were driving. One guy got ticketed the same day as me and basically had my same story. After a few of them, I'm thinking this Judge is just going to toss them all out. Not hardly.

Here's how it broke down, if you had a CDL license, you got the charges dropped and paid court costs. If you had a clean record, you got the charges dropped and paid court costs. If you had violations, he would listen to your story and decide what fine you paid (most paid the full amount). Well, I get up there, plead my case, judge asks me what I want, I say I want no fine, no points. Trooper says he's okay with that! Judge looks at my driving record, sees two tickets over the last 8 years and slams me with the full fine but no points.

The no points was worth my time, but I wasn't too thrilled how the judge was doling out the fines.

Thanks to everyone for your help and input.

Power to the people.

2 tickets in 8 years is considered a poor record in Tampa?
I'm just wondering, after going through the "justice system", would you do it the same way if you had to do it again, or in other words, was it worth fighting it?

So why did the F'n trooper even write the ticket in the first place if he was "okay with it", f'n douche bag