Top Myths About Speeding Tickets

A simple speeding ticket. I would say that in my twenty years of criminal prosecuting, in terms of run of the mill traffic tickets, 90-95% of the the time it was a speeding ticket. Drivers and defendants for some reason have the strangest ideas about a speeding ticket and those speeding ticket notions just aren't true. If you want to avoid finding out the hard way about a speeding ticket then read on and the learn the biggest speeding ticket myths.

Myth 1. I'm not a lawyer so I can't represent myself in court on a speeding ticket
False. Many regular people represent themselves on a speeding ticket. They negotiate their speeding ticket with the prosecutor to the extent they can and they even take their own speeding ticket cases to trial, sometimes jury trials. Do a little on-line research on representing yourself on your speeding ticket case before you come to court. You can even get a copy of your own permanent driving history at any Driver's Bureau Office. This isn't to say you can do a better job of it than an experienced lawyer can with your speeding ticket, but you can do it.

Myth 2. If I pay a few extra dollars the speeding ticket won't be a part of my permanent driving record.
False. Paying the extra money to keep a speeding ticket off your permanent record is a good idea if you can do it. In Illinois this disposition is called court supervision. It's called other things in other states but it's the same thing. Many states like Illinois, limit the number of times a driver can do this with traffic citations in a given period of time. For example, in Illinois a driver can get traffic supervision twice in any 12 month period. But, even this can be misleading.

A Judge doesn't has to let you do this- even one time. They have the discretion and authority to make your speeding ticket a part of your permanent record even for a first offense. Then your speeding ticket may affect your license and your insurance rates. Many counties within your state will also require you to attend some sort of traffic school class to qualify for court supervision on a speeding ticket. This takes up your time and there is an additional fee imposed for the class. That speeding ticket may cost you up to an additional $110 just for the one day class.

Myth 3. The police always give you 5 over.
Or 9 over the limit, or 10 over the limit, or whatever over the limit. False. Ignore this one at your peril. It is true that almost all police officers give drivers a certain amount of leeway with the speed limit before issuing a speeding ticket. Each officer is different as to how much leeway they'll give drivers before writing them a speeding ticket. But, police officers have bad days too. If you speed, you risk running into an officer who is giving no leeway that day. They don't have to do it if they don't want to. You can get a speeding ticket for being 1 over. Then there are also situations when there is a police crackdown in a particular area. A lot of speeding tickets are written that way.

Myth 4. I will be found innocent because everyone else was going as fast or faster.
False. A judge or jury will sympathize with you but they will follow their duty and find you guilty on your speeding ticket if the prosecutor can prove you were speeding. You may not even be able to bring up the fact that you were just keeping up with traffic during your speeding ticket case.

Myth 5. If I am caught speeding on the officer's radar gun I can attack the gun's accuracy and win my speeding ticket case.
False. When an officer has you on radar, assuming he testifies at trial that he knows he clocked your car, in my experience you have a 99% chance of being convicted on your speeding ticket. Asking the officer questions about how the weather or how power lines might affect his radar gun's accuracy are going to be futile. Why, because the officer is merely trained to test and operate his radar gun. He doesn't know it's technical specifications. He's not an expert on it. You could hire a defense expert but it would cost you a lot, we're talking thousands here, with no assurance of the result.

Myth 6. I can win my speeding ticket case in court because the officer didn't show me my speed on his radar gun when I asked to see it.
False. An officer is under no requirement to show you his radar gun so you can see how fast you were really going. Reason - if the officer always had to show his radar gun to every driver who asked to see it after a stop, he would never get any work done. The law doesn't require it in a speeding ticket case.

Myth 7. If there's a written error on my speeding ticket the case must be thrown out.
False. Errors like spelling your name wrong on a speeding ticket, getting the date wrong on a speeding ticket, getting the details off of your license wrong are all very common errors on a speeding ticket and will not result in a dismissed speeding ticket. Reason - the mistake doesn't prejudice you or harm any defense you may have in any way. It's a clerical error, nothing more. However, if there is a major mistake on the speeding ticket, like the type of car involved, or if the location where the offense occurred is way off, then it may help you in defending your case. Each case will be different. But, a major written mistake on a speeding ticket is rare.

Myth 8. I'll win if the officer doesn't show up for the trial.
False. Judges in Illinois, for example, routinely grant the State one continuance if the officer can't make the trial. The are some exceptions. If you have travelled 300 miles for the trial you stand a good chance of having your speeding ticket dismissed if the officer does not appear for trial. Likewise, if the State cannot produce a reasonable excuse for the officer not appearing for your speeding ticket, like training, or illness, or vacation, the chances of your case being dismissed go up. But it is not a sure thing.

Myth 9. Speeding tickets aren't expensive.
False. Like everything else the cost of a speeding ticket has gone up. Odd as it sounds you can get a fairly good idea of whether your 15 over the limit speeding ticket will be extremely expensive or not by looking at the size of the population in the county you received the speeding ticket. For example in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is, with 10 million people a speeding ticket that won't go on your permanent record may cost you around $200.00. In an Illinois county with a very small population of 10,000 people your ticket may run you double or triple that. In addition, in many states, like Illinois for example, the fines go up according to how many miles over the speed limit you are going. For example in Illinois if you are going 40 over the limit it's not a simple speeding ticket anymore, it's a Class A Misdemeanor and you can be fined up to $2500 dollars and go to jail. The days of $50 speeding tickets are gone.

Myth 10. I'm not guilty of this speeding ticket. "There's no way I was going 25 over the limit, it was only 2 over."
False. How much over the speed limit you were going isn't the issue at a trial. The only issue at a trial is were you over the limit or weren't you. In my twenty-years experience nobody who fought a speeding ticket on this basis ever won. As soon as the judge or jury heard that a driver was even 1 over the legal limit their duty to follow the law kicked in and required them to convict-and they always did.

Myth 11. I've got a radar detection device. No speeding ticket, no problem, I'll be fine.
False. Police know there are drivers trying to avoid a speeding ticket with radar detection devices too. They take simple counter measures. For example, someone will come flying down the highway at 95 with his radar device scanning away and finding nothing. He has no idea he's about to get a speeding ticket. That's because the police officer that is parked 3/4 of a mile ahead of him with his radar gun pointed down the highway hasn't turned his radar gun on yet. As soon as he sees the speeding car he uses his experience to estimate the driver's speed at 95 m.p.h.. Then and only then he will turn on his radar gun. The driver never stood a chance. Check with your state. In some states radar detectors to avoid a speeding ticket are illegal.

Slow down, drive safely, buckle up.