How to Avoid Speeding Tickets

While it is not being suggested that you use information here to drive any speed you want, especially if you plan on driving 60 miles per hour through a school zone, we will instead concentrate on those speeding tickets issued to motorists who were trying to obey the law.

I used to drive about fifty thousand miles per year in my car making sales trips all over Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. A good deal of it was done during the days when the speed limit was still 55 on interstate highways. I confess that there may have been a few tickets I deserved, but there were a good deal of them that resulted from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being cited for going 69 mph in a 60 mph zone when nobody else is on the road, and being cited another time for going 79 in a 70 mph zone are a few examples. And yes, there were times I was caught doing 69 in a 55 mph zone, 40 in a 30 mph zone, and so on. When you drive on a lot of unfamiliar roads, it's not always possible to keep up with changes in the posted speed limit. It used to be, a long time ago, there had to be an element of intent to prove you were guilty of a speeding violation, but admittedly, due to difficult economic times in many counties across the country, the courts try to intimidate you into just mailing in your fine and adding it to your driving record. And if you accumulate enough speeding violations, your insurance rates will increase, you can be compelled to attend a state-licensed driver improvement school, or even ultimately lose your driver's license.

So what should you do if you're driving and you either momentarily lose track of your speed or are unintentionally speeding in an area where you don't know the speed limit and you're pulled over? Let me hasten to add, that many courts are not respecting the rule of law, should you decide to go to court and plead not guilty. So your best bet these days is to take extra precautions against getting stopped in the first place. Conventional wisdom, I know. But there are ways to fight speeding tickets and win. I have had at least six speeding tickets in my own case in which I decided to plead not guilty and won, meaning I didn't plea bargain, or pay fine money to have them amend it to some other violation that didn't go on my driving record, or anything like that.

It's worth mentioning before I get into specifics about how to defend yourself against speeding tickets, that if you are stopped, you should try to avoid saying anything to the police officer. Many of them will try to say something like, "did you know you were going such-and-such a speed back there?" or "did you know you were speeding?" Or they may say, "did you know the posted speed limit here is 55?" when you're going 65 or something a little faster. It's best to usually say nothing and just wait for them to ask for your license and registration. Don't be rude or try to argue your way out of it. Make sure that any "yes, sir," or "no, sir," responses can't be construed as admission of any guilt. If you have to say anything in response to the typical questions asked by a patrolman, it's usually best to just say, "no, sir," very politely, and don't add any commentary.

There are basically two ways to prevail against a speeding ticket, in which the matter is dropped or amended and doesn't go on your driving record. A word of warning, however. If you drove 60 mph in a 20 mph school zone, or committed some other equally outrageous offense, there won't be anything offered by me here that will help. If you drove 80 mph in a 55 mph zone, you're not likely to get off either. But let's say you drive a lot and you're just tired of being nickeled and dimed by offenses where they say you went 69 in a 60 mph zone, or you had a bad day and drove 78 in a 65 mph zone. Typically, the police won't ticket you unless they believe you're going at least ten mph over the speed limit, but it's not a hard and fast rule.

The first way to prevail against a speeding ticket, if you just want to get rid of it and don't want to go to court, should work for someone who's only had one or two citations in the last three years. And even if you've had two or three citations, you could still use this method. Just be aware that if you've had a number of violations, the court you approach with this method, may decide to check you out. Most won't with this method, but it's just important to recognize that this will be more likely to work if you've just had one or two violations in the past three years. And if you haven't had any violations, there's a much greater chance for success. You go visit the court that is handling the ticket well in advance of your court date, which could be either a municipal, city, or county court. You ask to speak to the prosecutor or county attorney or whoever handles traffic matters. You may want to call the court ahead of time and set up an appointment, as these guys are either in court all the time, or are just not available should you show up unannounced. Once you're in front of the person prosecuting traffic offenses, tell them that you've been cited for speeding, you'd like to keep the matter off your driving record (if it's ten mph or more over the limit), and could they amend the citation to either a lower speed to keep it off your record or some other violation that won't affect your driving record. At this point, be prepared to spend some money. Many of these prosecutors will bite, but usually ask for a fine that is larger than that which appears on your "Notice to Appear." A good deal of the time, they'll reduce the speed on the citation to a violation that won't appear on your record. The best way to make this work is to go in with your wallet full, because they are more interested in the money than they are in going to court, getting a guilty verdict, and then having to wait for you to pay the fine.

A good rule of thumb for making the first method work is to take at least twice the amount of the fine with you and then try to deal with the prosecutor. If you think I'm kidding about this, I've had at least three occasions where I've gone in ahead of time, and was told that if I paid twice the amount of the fine, they would amend my speeding ticket to something that stayed off my driving record, or they would amend it to something like "parking, while unattended." I was cited for doing 64 in a 45 mph zone one time, was fined about $150.00, and was told that for about $300.00 and some time spent in driver improvement school, they'd amend it to something that would stay off my driving record. My all time favorite was when I was stopped doing 69 in a 60 mph zone. Not even doing 10 mph over the limit, and not intentional at all on my part to be speeding, that county wanted $108.00 (before the recent increase in fines took effect), but would let it go for about $150.00 plus attendance in driver improvement school. More on this later. I'll agree that the speed of 64 in a 45 zone is pushing it, but I didn't like the terms and decided to fight it.

The second way to prevail worked for me on six occasions. It should still work a good deal of the time. You should be aware, though, that technology has vastly improved in the last few years. Many police cars have videotape players in their car to lessen your chances of winning. Corny as it may sound, your best bet is to avoid having a run-in with these guys in the first place. But in many places, even with videotape players, you can still win. Be aware that if you do as I'm suggesting, you will have to show up in court. So if you don't like to go to court or are too intimidated by the thought, then my first method for settling the matter in advance of your court date is the best method. Even if you have to cough up extra fine money, anything is cheaper than hiring a lawyer. About all a lawyer is good for, is helping with a DUI offense. Most won't defend a speeding ticket because the deck is stacked against you.

Most court jurisdictions will allow you to enter a plea of "Not guilty," by either phoning it in, or sending something in writing. More and more of them, however, are forcing you to appear to enter the plea, just to intimidate you and to coerce you since they usually hold traffic court in the middle of the week on a Wednesday morning. Forget about anything you may have read about challenging jurisdiction. It just doesn't work. Once you enter your plea of "Not guilty," you immediately need to submit a request for discovery to the prosecuting attorney. I would have this request for discovery ready to hand to him after you've entered the plea of "Not guilty," or give it to his (or her) secretary or administrative assistant. Make sure the discovery requests include requests for tuning fork certificates, a copy of the owner's manual for the radar equipment used, a copy of the maintenance records for the radar equipment, a copy of the patrolman's certificate to use the radar equipment used to cite you, a copy of the FCC license granting authority to use the type of radar equipment used to cite you, and a complete description of the make and model of the radar device used to issue the citation. In addition, you should ask for the officer's copy of the citation, both front and back, the officer's log for the day he cited you for speeding, training records of the officer pertaining to his instruction and continuing education in the use of the radar device used to cite you, any repair records for the radar device used that could indicate a malfunction, the date the unit was placed in service, just to name a few. The idea is to ask for as many discovery items as you can and to follow up with a phone call or two to the prosecutor's office to make sure they received your discovery requests and to provide you with all of them prior to trial.

Sometimes, a court will hold a pre-trial conference in which a prosecutor will argue that some of these discovery requests are irrelevant or unnecessary. Many other times, especially if the court is busy, they will ignore your discovery requests until the time of trial. It is important to make sure the court had every opportunity to answer your requests for discovery prior to trial and that they take your requests for discovery seriously. About 20% of the time, the court will acknowledge the requests for discovery and claim they will comply, and then contact you later about just dropping the matter because it's too much work for them. Another 20-30% of the time, you'll show up the day of trial and the court will attempt to try the case, but all you have to do is move for a dismissal because they didn't provide you with the discovery you requested ahead of time that you needed to prepare a defense. I had most of my speeding tickets dismissed on this basis.

If the court goes to the bother of holding a pre-trial conference and the judge throws out all of your discovery requests, you'd best conclude they want the money from you badly and that it may not be worth fighting. This latter method isn't foolproof, but it does tend to work well in areas where the caseload is heavy and the prosecutor doesn't have the time to argue, particularly if the violation is just ten to fifteen miles per hour over the limit. Sometimes, the court will allow most of your discovery requests, but may throw out your request that they produce an FCC license, for example. It may still be worth fighting because if the judge allows a discovery request for maintenance records for the radar unit being used to cite you and they don't show up with it, you can still move for dismissal due to failure to provide you with pre-trial discovery. A number of times, I've gotten the court to allow repair and maintenance records to be admitted as discovery requests and I have yet to see any police department come up with any records of this sort. Many radar units have to be checked out according to the manufacturer's manual at least every two years and this is never verified.

A good deal of the time, most courts still respect the rule of law. But more and more of them don't. Even though my method of asking for pre-trial discovery has worked about 80% of the time, I have seen judges disregard the rule of law, hold a trial anyway, and I've had to appeal and win on appeal. Most people don't have the stomach to go through that kind of turmoil. I actually had two cases where I won, and THEY appealed. The first appeal went my way, and the case got thrown out. The second one got split down the middle and the offense was kept off my driving record. This was the case where they wanted $300 to forget about it when they were originally asking $150 on the citation. I wound up paying about $100 and kept the violation of doing 64 in a 45 mph off my record. I had them dead to rights in the lower court, though. I had asked for discovery, the magistrate judge ordered them to provide it, the prosecution refused, the case got thrown out, and they appealed. In order to further prove that it's all about the money, this particular court failed to provide notice of a hearing after they appealed, got a default judgment against me, and had it overturned within hours when I confronted the court with it. I didn't have to schedule a hearing to overturn the default judgment, but it was obvious that the prosecutor thought his only chance of winning on his appeal was to avoid sending a notice of hearing. All this for $150.00, which got reduced to $100!

While I certainly don't think people should wantonly abuse posted speed limits, police could use a little more discretion in issuing citations. With many counties building new public buildings and adding municipal courts to the district courts, it's no wonder that policemen and prosecutors feel the pressure to extract money from motorists to make up the shortfall in local budgets. If the judge ignores your reasonable requests for discovery or forces you to try the case in violation of providing you with all the items of pre-trial discovery, you have grounds for an appeal. But once they put the officer on the stand to testify against you, it's over. Plan on appealing. The whole idea with the method of requesting pre-trial discovery is to force the state to capitulate before trial. I have yet to see one trial go in favor of the defendant unless the complaining officer doesn't show, which oddly enough happens from time to time. So far, in all the cases I've been involved in, I only recall one ticket remaining at the original level cited; the rest were either dropped or amended to an offense that stayed off my driving record. It's funny how I could go years without being stopped for speeding, and then all of a sudden, get stopped two or three times in a short period of time. It seems like the police are getting more aggressive on the roads all the time, with mandatory seat belt laws and checkpoints for cars with drugs in them, that it pays to invest a little time to keep your driving record as clean as possible.