Can You Really Get Out of a Ticket?

Part I of II

Yes, you can really weasel your way out of a ticket, but it requires you going to court. Now mind you, just because I am taking the time to explain all of these proceedings, doesn't mean I condone the illegal actions taken to get the ticket in the first place.

The first thing you need to comprehend is the ticket. You need to find out exactly which law the ticket says you violated, not just what is written on the ticket. Look real close at the ticket, the officer should have plainly written the number of the statute that was dishonored. The next obvious step is to take a trip to the library to have a look at that statute.

If you prefer to look it up online here are a few of links that may help: www.legalonline.com/statute2.htm, www.findlaw.com/casecode/state.html, and www.speedtrap.com.

I would like to add before deciding to dispute the ticket, make some inquiries first to determine if it is even worth the hassle. While determining if it is worth while, remember that officers only show up ten to twenty percent of the time.

In your researching of the statute you supposedly violated you will find more often than not you didn't actually break any laws.

Here's an illustration of what I mean; we'll use an illegal u-turn. Under illegal u-turns it states "No person in a residence district shall make a u-turn when any other vehicle is approaching from either direction within two-hundred feet, except at an intersection when the approaching vehicle is controlled by an official traffic control device".

To be found culpable of breaking this law, the state must establish you were guilty of each element. In this particular case their are four elements.

You were driving in a "residence district"

You drove your vehicle in a one-hundred eighty degree or "u-turn"

Another vehicle was approaching within two-hundred feet or less, either in front or from behind

An "official traffic control device" at an "intersection" was not controlling the vehicle approaching you

So basically, if you can show your conduct did not violate all four of the elements of the law, you're home free.

I suppose your next question would be will it hold up in a courtroom. Absolutely. This is referred to as a technical reading. Which is exactly how judges and lawyers are taught.

If after you have completed your research, and it is still not cut and dry whether or not you would win the case, here is some additional information that may be helpful.

The next thing you should start doing is gathering case decisions. Sometimes these decisions can make a huge difference in your situation. Why you might ask? The reason is once a law has been written, judges use real-life situations to interpret it.

If you get stumped as to where to find these cases and court decisions try looking in a set of "annotated" codes and laws. Annotations are outlines of each law found just below the written text.

The basic idea behind using the annotations are to find similar cases where the judge ruled in favor of the defendant because of some circumstance that you also may be able to prove.

If in fact you should stumble upon one that is similar, you will need to write the citation number of the relevant case down for future reference. The citation number will look something like this 243FL567. The first three numbers refers to two-hundred forty third volume of the Florida Supreme Court decisions and the last set of numbers refer to page five-hundred sixty seven. By the by, you always want to use the most recent case if possible.

Can other laws help your case? Yes, by all means try to find and use other laws for your benefit. A typical example would be exceeding the speed limit. The legal interpretation of one law can sometimes be affected by another.

Here's what I mean, section 233.54.890 of your state's motor vehicle law prohibits exceeding twenty five miles per hour in a residence district. However, section 233.54.875 says all your state's speed limits are "presumed" limits.

What this means to you is even though you may have technically violated section 233.54.890, you might be able to successfully claim that it was legal to do so because section 233.54.875 allows you to exceed the speed limit when driving safely under circumstances.

Now getting back to the u-turn. You're ticketed for section 233.54.890 of your state's vehicle code for making a u-turn in a "residence district". However, section 233.54.875 defines a residential district as an area with at least four houses per acre of land.

Since you made your u-turn in an area with fewer houses per acre than that listed in section 233.54.875 you can argue that your not guilty of every element in section 233.54.890, therefore cannot be found culpable.

This concludes Part I of II, I hope this will help some of those out there that need help.