How to Fight and Beat a Speeding Ticket in the State of California
Speeding and red light tickets in the state of California carry with them some of the highest fines in the nation. Besides the initial fine, a serious speeding ticket can lead to many other unwanted consequences, including a long-term hike in insurance rates and points against your DMV record. Enough points against your DMV record will eventually lead to the suspension or revocation of your driver's license.
For commercial driver's licenses, the consequences of a speeding ticket are even more serious. A speeding ticket that earns a regular driver just one point earns a commercial driver 1.5 points for the same speeding violation. Likewise, a speeding ticket of fifteen miles per hour over the limit warrants a simple citation for a non-commercial driver, but for a CDL holder, that same ticket leads to a misdemeanor criminal charge. If a commercial driver loses their license, they also lose their livelihood.
Tired of paying heavy fines for your speeding tickets? You don’t have to. With the help of a California traffic ticket attorney you can dismiss the charges, or at least reduce the fines.
Beat Speeding Tickets
When you don't fight a speeding ticket, you'll be subject to the maximum fine allowed by the law, and it will definitely go on your record and to your insurance company. What most people don't realize, however, is that with a competent traffic lawyer, most speeding tickets can be beaten. In some cases, fighting the ticket will result in a reduction of the consequences. For example, by going to traffic school, any points on your license are eliminated and your insurance rates remain the same. In other cases, the traffic charges may be thrown out completely. Sometimes, all it takes is presenting the court with a good reason for why you were speeding. A sympathetic judge may find that reason enough to give you a reprieve.
What Legal Help Can Do For You
A California traffic lawyer can subpoena the evidence against you. In the case of a speeding ticket, this means that your attorney can actually pull the radar gun from the officer who charged you with speeding, and compile all the radar calibration records. A radar gun, just like a red light camera at an intersection, is not infallible. A glitch in the system may cause the radar gun to give false readings, and by looking at the calibration records, a lawyer may be able to cast doubt on the speed the gun recorded on you. It is your right to subpoena the evidence against you, but for the traffic court, this process is costly and time-consuming. In other words, rather than go to the trouble of providing your lawyer with the evidence he or she requested, the court may decide just to dismiss the charges and move on to the next, easier speeding case. With hundreds or even thousands of speeding ticket cases each month, the court doesn't particularly want to waste its time and resources fighting just one speeding ticket case. For this reason, fighting your ticket with legal help stands a good chance of getting your charges reduced or dismissed, even if you clearly violated the law.
Although hiring an attorney for a simple speeding ticket might not seem to be a good decisions in short term, it can avoid a lot of traffic ticket costs and insurance raises in long term.