Although I am a Seattle traffic attorney, I realize that most people that are finding my blog and my website are trying to figure out how to beat a speeding ticket on their own. Even though you get what you pay for when you hire a traffic attorney, I understand we can be pricey for some people.
So, in honor of helping out the little guy, I'm going to give a little tip to all those people out there that want to fight their traffic tickets on their own. You're at a great disadvantage, and when you get to court and see the traffic attorneys working you'll understand what I mean, but you are entitled to do whatever it is you want to do.
When I am in court and I see people representing themselves, they always seem to take one thing for granted - if you are speeding, and particularly if you admit to speeding, the court is going to find that you were speeding and make you pay.
What I'm trying to say is, if you begin any sentence with, "I was going over the speed limit, but" the court is going to act like they are listening to what you are saying and then apologize as they find you committed the infraction and fine you. The first thing you learn in Seattle traffic attorney finishing school (this doesn't really exist, by the way) is that speeding is speeding. Period. Flow of traffic, emergency, etc. doesn't matter.
So, when you get up in front of the judge to make your argument, don't admit to speeding. Come up with something else. Or hire someone who can help.
1.04.2010
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | How to Hammer a Speeding infraction
Speeding tickets and supplementary speeding infractions are by far the most maddening things that can ensue to you on a daily basis. Not only do they take up your time with speeding court, but they impact your wallet with fines and court costs. But it doesn't have to be all horrific. It is doable to beat a speeding ticket, under the appropriate situations. You simply have to distinguish what to glimpse for and how to proceed (and probably hire a Seattle traffic lawyer), and you can beat your traffic infraction.
After you get home, still, you are going to have this ticket staring you appropriate in the face. And at that exact split second, you have four choices: pay the ticket (plead guilty); fight the ticket in writing (write down in your account of why you feel you should not be cited with a traffic violation); mitigation court hearing (come clean that you were erroneous but ask for a reduction in the payment); or contest the court hearing in court. Before we decide on what to do, let's glimpse at these options.
First, paying the payment out-and-out. That is only stupid. I don't really have anything to say apart from that you should probably never do that. Ever. Never ever.
Second, written contest. You ought to discern deep down that you possess no way of winning with a written fight. The judge will look at the ticket with the officer's remarks, look at your scribble, and order you to pay the fine. This is only a means for the Court to make you feel like you've been heard. I've never heard of anybody who ever won a ticket this system.
Third, mitigation. Forget about it. It is not worth it. And in any event, you can regularly roll up a mitigation request into your contested court hearing. Which gets us to the only option there is.
Fight the infraction. But, keep in mind that you only have so much time to do so. In Seattle, Washington, for example, the deadline is 15 days after the infraction has been issued to appeal a contested hearing. If you don't, then you lose. This is the way to have the most excellent possibility of beating your traffic infraction. Be troubled about the details later.
Thanks for reading the Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog. Come back for more helpful hints and tricks to beat your speeding ticket.
Related Posts:
After you get home, still, you are going to have this ticket staring you appropriate in the face. And at that exact split second, you have four choices: pay the ticket (plead guilty); fight the ticket in writing (write down in your account of why you feel you should not be cited with a traffic violation); mitigation court hearing (come clean that you were erroneous but ask for a reduction in the payment); or contest the court hearing in court. Before we decide on what to do, let's glimpse at these options.
First, paying the payment out-and-out. That is only stupid. I don't really have anything to say apart from that you should probably never do that. Ever. Never ever.
Second, written contest. You ought to discern deep down that you possess no way of winning with a written fight. The judge will look at the ticket with the officer's remarks, look at your scribble, and order you to pay the fine. This is only a means for the Court to make you feel like you've been heard. I've never heard of anybody who ever won a ticket this system.
Third, mitigation. Forget about it. It is not worth it. And in any event, you can regularly roll up a mitigation request into your contested court hearing. Which gets us to the only option there is.
Fight the infraction. But, keep in mind that you only have so much time to do so. In Seattle, Washington, for example, the deadline is 15 days after the infraction has been issued to appeal a contested hearing. If you don't, then you lose. This is the way to have the most excellent possibility of beating your traffic infraction. Be troubled about the details later.
Thanks for reading the Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog. Come back for more helpful hints and tricks to beat your speeding ticket.
Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Three Options
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Insurance
9.03.2009
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Three Speeding Ticket Options
Almost every one of us has been pulled over for speeding or breaking some other traffic law at some point in our lives. Me personally? I've been pulled over a couple times for speeding (though I was never issued a ticket) and one time for failing to yield to traffic (there was no accident but it was a busy intersection and the cop was pissed - but no infraction issued there either). And when that time comes, people are usually more annoyed than anything. Speeding tickets are expensive. Speeding tickets can be time consuming. And there is always that threat that a speeding ticket will significantly increase your car insurance.
But, all is not lost. If you do get pulled over for speeding in Seattle or for some other traffic infraction, all is not lost. There are options out there for beating your speeding ticket, number one of which is hiring a Seattle traffic lawyer. But before you even get to the part about beating your speeding ticket, you have to make a decision about how to proceed with your ticket.
Generally, there are three ways to contest your ticket: admit that it is committed and pay the fine; request a mitigation hearing; and contest the ticket (there is a fourth option, which is writing in to contest your ticket, but in my opinion your explanation is going to be given the weight of the paper it's written on). With each of three options comes benefits and drawbacks. Today I'm just going to discuss them and let you decide what you should do.
First we have admit the Seattle speeding ticket was committed and pay the fine. Is it okay to say this is about the dumbest thing you could do? There is no reason to ever pick this option. It has no benefits. All this does is make the city or county rich because you didn't have the guts to fight your ticket. And, to boot, you have the record of the speeding ticket on your driving record, potentially increasing your insurance premiums. In a way, this could be the Seattle speeding ticket that just keeps on giving.
Needless to say, you should probably never, under any circumstances, check this box and send in your traffic infraction.
Next up we have mitigation. If you didn't know, mitigation, by its definition, is the act of reducing something from its current size. In this case a mitigation hearing is designed to give you the opportunity to lower the size of your current traffic infraction fine. The only problem? The infraction remains on your record as is, so if you were cited for speeding, you will have a speeding ticket on your driving record for a few years. The only good thing about this? Maybe you get your fine knocked down $20 bucks from what it was - some benefit.
If you couldn't tell, I'm not a big fan of mitigation hearings either. The way I see it, the state should at least have to earn their money from me or my clients. I'm not just going to give it away. So, while mitigation looks pretty appealing, in the end, it is usually just a waste of time (and, by the way, you can usually turn your contested hearing into a mitigation hearing if things are looking well).
Finally, the coup de gras - the contested speeding ticket hearing. If you have received a Seattle speeding ticket, this is the only route to take. Not only will the judge usually mitigate if you end up losing, but you have every chance of actually beating your speeding ticket, meaning no fine and no increased insurance premiums.
But there is a catch. You can't just walk into your contested hearing, say hi, and get your traffic infraction case dismissed. You have to have a reason for asking for a dismissal. And, maybe if you see something obvious, you can do it yourself. But more often than not, you will not have any clue what to look for, where the weak point of a case are, or how to approach the prosecutor or the officer (if necessary) to get your point across. And, not to blatantly advertise for my services here, that is why you need a Seattle speeding ticket attorney working for you to help you spot those issues, present them in the best manner to the judge, and get your speeding ticket dismissed.
Now, this is not to say that you can't do it on your own. People do it every day. I'm only saying that your chances of success increase exponentially when you have someone as experienced and practiced in traffic law as the state does on its side (which, by the way, even if there is no prosecutor there, the judge is working on the state's side).
In the end, if you do get popped with a Seattle speeding ticket it isn't the end of the world. Eventually your insurance premiums will go down, and eventually your driving record will clear up. But if you want to keep it clean entirely, read the Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog and hire a Seattle traffic attorney.
Related Posts:
But, all is not lost. If you do get pulled over for speeding in Seattle or for some other traffic infraction, all is not lost. There are options out there for beating your speeding ticket, number one of which is hiring a Seattle traffic lawyer. But before you even get to the part about beating your speeding ticket, you have to make a decision about how to proceed with your ticket.
Generally, there are three ways to contest your ticket: admit that it is committed and pay the fine; request a mitigation hearing; and contest the ticket (there is a fourth option, which is writing in to contest your ticket, but in my opinion your explanation is going to be given the weight of the paper it's written on). With each of three options comes benefits and drawbacks. Today I'm just going to discuss them and let you decide what you should do.
First we have admit the Seattle speeding ticket was committed and pay the fine. Is it okay to say this is about the dumbest thing you could do? There is no reason to ever pick this option. It has no benefits. All this does is make the city or county rich because you didn't have the guts to fight your ticket. And, to boot, you have the record of the speeding ticket on your driving record, potentially increasing your insurance premiums. In a way, this could be the Seattle speeding ticket that just keeps on giving.
Needless to say, you should probably never, under any circumstances, check this box and send in your traffic infraction.
Next up we have mitigation. If you didn't know, mitigation, by its definition, is the act of reducing something from its current size. In this case a mitigation hearing is designed to give you the opportunity to lower the size of your current traffic infraction fine. The only problem? The infraction remains on your record as is, so if you were cited for speeding, you will have a speeding ticket on your driving record for a few years. The only good thing about this? Maybe you get your fine knocked down $20 bucks from what it was - some benefit.
If you couldn't tell, I'm not a big fan of mitigation hearings either. The way I see it, the state should at least have to earn their money from me or my clients. I'm not just going to give it away. So, while mitigation looks pretty appealing, in the end, it is usually just a waste of time (and, by the way, you can usually turn your contested hearing into a mitigation hearing if things are looking well).
Finally, the coup de gras - the contested speeding ticket hearing. If you have received a Seattle speeding ticket, this is the only route to take. Not only will the judge usually mitigate if you end up losing, but you have every chance of actually beating your speeding ticket, meaning no fine and no increased insurance premiums.
But there is a catch. You can't just walk into your contested hearing, say hi, and get your traffic infraction case dismissed. You have to have a reason for asking for a dismissal. And, maybe if you see something obvious, you can do it yourself. But more often than not, you will not have any clue what to look for, where the weak point of a case are, or how to approach the prosecutor or the officer (if necessary) to get your point across. And, not to blatantly advertise for my services here, that is why you need a Seattle speeding ticket attorney working for you to help you spot those issues, present them in the best manner to the judge, and get your speeding ticket dismissed.
Now, this is not to say that you can't do it on your own. People do it every day. I'm only saying that your chances of success increase exponentially when you have someone as experienced and practiced in traffic law as the state does on its side (which, by the way, even if there is no prosecutor there, the judge is working on the state's side).
In the end, if you do get popped with a Seattle speeding ticket it isn't the end of the world. Eventually your insurance premiums will go down, and eventually your driving record will clear up. But if you want to keep it clean entirely, read the Seattle Traffic Lawyer Blog and hire a Seattle traffic attorney.
Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | We Get Tickets Dismissed
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | You Can't Be Too Careful
8.27.2009
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | We Get Tickets Dismissed
The title of this post is not a lie. And, although we can't guarantee you we can get your Seattle speeding ticket dismissed, we can guarantee that we can exponentially increase your chances of a dismissal (or a reduction to a non-moving violation). I just did it today. Want to hear about it? Okay.
Had a client, we'll call him HC (hypothetical client). He was driving around, minding his own business in Seattle, when he was pulled over by the Seattle cops. They said they clocked him with the radar gun going 10 mph over the posted speed limit. My guy was sure that he wasn't speeding, but was unsure of what to do to contest the ticket. He had a perfect driving record, was proud of it, and didn't want it to be tarnished. So, he did the right thing and called me, a Seattle speeding ticket attorney.
Once he called me and signed up I filed my notice of appearance, requested a contested hearing date, and requested a copy of the officer's statement and radar gun information. If you didn't know, Seattle speeding tickets, almost all of them, are issued based upon the reading of a speed measuring device (SMD). To get the SMD information admitted into court, they have to comply with the rules of evidence. This means having someone certify under oath that that SMDs have been maintained in an appropriate manner and are used in an appropriate manner.
After a week or so I received the discovery from the State, and I began going through my checklist of issues to review for a Seattle speeding ticket (by the way, any good Seattle traffic lawyer is going to have a list - helps us to not forget anything). One of the primary concerns on the list when it comes to SMDs is to make sure all of the procedural hoops have been jumped through to ensure it can be admitted into evidence. If those procedural hoops have not been jumped through then the radar evidence is inadmissible, and assuming you didn't tell the cop you were speeding, you will get your Seattle speeding ticket dismissed.
If you get a speeding ticket in Seattle or any other kind of traffic infraction in Seattle, I'd highly recommend fighting it, even if you decide you don't want to hire a traffic attorney. Just put your thinking cap on, review the law, see what the prosecutor must prove to beat you, and see if that information is in the officer's statement. If it isn't, you can probably beat your speeding ticket.
Oh, and one other thing while I'm here so you don't get freaked out when you contest your Seattle speeding ticket. Many times there is no prosecutor in the building when you have your contested hearing. This is normal. Whoever is in charge of prosecutors has simply decided they don't want to waste their time paying someone to fight these contested traffic tickets. This is good because there is no one contesting what you are saying, no one advocating for the cops. It's just you and the judge. I think this always means you have the upper hand.
Related Posts:
Had a client, we'll call him HC (hypothetical client). He was driving around, minding his own business in Seattle, when he was pulled over by the Seattle cops. They said they clocked him with the radar gun going 10 mph over the posted speed limit. My guy was sure that he wasn't speeding, but was unsure of what to do to contest the ticket. He had a perfect driving record, was proud of it, and didn't want it to be tarnished. So, he did the right thing and called me, a Seattle speeding ticket attorney.
Once he called me and signed up I filed my notice of appearance, requested a contested hearing date, and requested a copy of the officer's statement and radar gun information. If you didn't know, Seattle speeding tickets, almost all of them, are issued based upon the reading of a speed measuring device (SMD). To get the SMD information admitted into court, they have to comply with the rules of evidence. This means having someone certify under oath that that SMDs have been maintained in an appropriate manner and are used in an appropriate manner.
After a week or so I received the discovery from the State, and I began going through my checklist of issues to review for a Seattle speeding ticket (by the way, any good Seattle traffic lawyer is going to have a list - helps us to not forget anything). One of the primary concerns on the list when it comes to SMDs is to make sure all of the procedural hoops have been jumped through to ensure it can be admitted into evidence. If those procedural hoops have not been jumped through then the radar evidence is inadmissible, and assuming you didn't tell the cop you were speeding, you will get your Seattle speeding ticket dismissed.
If you get a speeding ticket in Seattle or any other kind of traffic infraction in Seattle, I'd highly recommend fighting it, even if you decide you don't want to hire a traffic attorney. Just put your thinking cap on, review the law, see what the prosecutor must prove to beat you, and see if that information is in the officer's statement. If it isn't, you can probably beat your speeding ticket.
Oh, and one other thing while I'm here so you don't get freaked out when you contest your Seattle speeding ticket. Many times there is no prosecutor in the building when you have your contested hearing. This is normal. Whoever is in charge of prosecutors has simply decided they don't want to waste their time paying someone to fight these contested traffic tickets. This is good because there is no one contesting what you are saying, no one advocating for the cops. It's just you and the judge. I think this always means you have the upper hand.
Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | FSTs
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Don't Believe the Hype
7.29.2009
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Don't Believe the Hype
If you google Seattle traffic lawyer you will find a laundry list of traffic lawyer websites out there touting their success rates and how good they are at fighting Seattle speeding tickets. You will read information about how hiring a good traffic attorney can help you win your case. And, you will probably read testimonials from former clients gushing about how this attorney helped get them out of a ticket they were sure they were stuck with.
Well, don't believe the hype. And learn how to differentiate the hype from the truth, because all of it isn't hype. Some of it is true.
For one, hiring a good Seattle traffic lawyer can substantially improve the chances that you get out of a traffic ticket - probably by 50% or more. But it isn't because they know any inside secrets or because they are buddies with the judge. Most of the time it is because the officer made mistakes when citing you - either procedurally (not signing in the right place) or substantively (he can't prove an essential element). Whatever the case may be, Seattle traffic lawyers do the same thing all other lawyers do - look at the facts, make sure the procedures were followed, and make the best argument available for their client.
But touting success rates is hype. The testimonials are hype. Why? Because your case is not their case. If everything is done right, it may still be extremely difficult to beat your Seattle traffic ticket. That is just the way it is. If you speed, you are taking the chance of having to pay for it. If you make an improper turn, you are taking the chance of having to pay for it. We, as Seattle traffic attorneys, can do our best, but we are not miracle workers.
So, next time you get a Seattle speeding ticket, definitely give us a call. We will work tirelessly to get your traffic ticket dismissed. But we can't guarantee anything. And every case is different, so what happened in the past doesn't matter. All we can tell you is that we are good, and we will fight for you.
Related Posts:
Well, don't believe the hype. And learn how to differentiate the hype from the truth, because all of it isn't hype. Some of it is true.
For one, hiring a good Seattle traffic lawyer can substantially improve the chances that you get out of a traffic ticket - probably by 50% or more. But it isn't because they know any inside secrets or because they are buddies with the judge. Most of the time it is because the officer made mistakes when citing you - either procedurally (not signing in the right place) or substantively (he can't prove an essential element). Whatever the case may be, Seattle traffic lawyers do the same thing all other lawyers do - look at the facts, make sure the procedures were followed, and make the best argument available for their client.
But touting success rates is hype. The testimonials are hype. Why? Because your case is not their case. If everything is done right, it may still be extremely difficult to beat your Seattle traffic ticket. That is just the way it is. If you speed, you are taking the chance of having to pay for it. If you make an improper turn, you are taking the chance of having to pay for it. We, as Seattle traffic attorneys, can do our best, but we are not miracle workers.
So, next time you get a Seattle speeding ticket, definitely give us a call. We will work tirelessly to get your traffic ticket dismissed. But we can't guarantee anything. And every case is different, so what happened in the past doesn't matter. All we can tell you is that we are good, and we will fight for you.
Related Posts:
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Beating Tickets
Seattle Traffic Lawyer | Speeding Tickets and Insurance
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