Fighting Your Traffic Ticket: Don\'t Make These 5 Foolish Mistakes

Over the years I have heard of some pretty awful defense strategies people use to try and get out of a traffic ticket. You cant blame them though. A lot of these individuals were simply relying on so called insider information they heard from a friend.

In this article we will go over the 5 most common mistakes used by people when trying to fight their traffic ticket. Use these as a guide of what not to do.

Mistake #1- Delaying the Court Trial

The rationale for this, some say, is that the longer you can delay traffic court for your traffic ticket, the likelier the chance the police officer won't show up at your court date.

Simply delaying your traffic court trial will not increase your chances of beating your traffic ticket.

My question is what if you do postpone your traffic court date and the officer still shows up?

This may be a little known fact, but police officers get overtime pay to be in traffic court.

Mistake #2- Requesting evidence before traffic court.

You have the right by law to see any information the court plans on using to convict you. The process is called discovery. And it would be useful if you were charged with murder, but this is traffic court. Don't do this, it can hurt your chances of successfully getting your traffic ticket dismissed.

When you make a motion for discovery and request evidence before your trial, this sends red flags to the prosecution that you are planning a good defense. He'll take it as a challenge and will prepare his case so efficiently that it becomes almost impossible to win.

Don't give the prosecution a heads up that you know anything about traffic court proceedings. Do not contact them prior to your traffic court date.

Mistake #3- Doing a lot of needless research

How many of you like to spend your free time at your local courthouse researching piles upon piles of law books? There's absolutely no need to do this research. It's time consuming and not to mention boring.

Only rarely would it be prudent to look up a law so you know how it may be worded, other than that it is needless to do this with most traffic tickets.

Mistake #4- Attacking the officer's credibility

If your defense is to go to traffic court and try to make the officer who gave you the traffic ticket look like an idiot, don't waste your time. Using any number of ridiculous excuses like the police officer singled you out or that he used the radar gun improperly will not work.

Don't ever go into traffic court with the idea you are going to challenge the police officers training on the use of the radar gun. This will only draw scrutiny from the judge, who will accept the officers testimony that he is properly trained on the use of the equipment.

Its just understood that the officer has the proper training on the speed detecting equipment he or she used to give you a traffic ticket. There's no question about it. Say you do try this defense, where are you going to get the evidence the judge will ask for to support your claim?

Mistake #5- Going to traffic court unprepared

Probably the mistake most people make is thinking they did a good job doing their homework prior to their day in traffic court, and actually didn't have a clue as to what they were doing to get prepared. So they lose their case and end up being convicted of the traffic ticket.

And then there are those who don't do any research and think that they can tell there side of the story and the judge will have pity on them. Yeah right!

Its understandable that it can be nerve wracking showing up to traffic court. Just remember you aren't on trial for your life, its just a traffic ticket. Traffic court is designed to be user friendly because of the volume of people going through there daily.

Avoid these five mistakes and you will have a better chance of winning your case in traffic court and getting your traffic ticket dismissed.

Learn more about traffic tickets and hoe to fight them. Stop by Steven Swihart's site where you can find out all about traffic violations and how to protect yourself against them.