Many people feel that the traffic court system is designed to maximize municipal profits by discouraging ticket recipients from challenging those tickets.

Nowhere has this policy been made more official than in the Indianapolis traffic courtroom of Judge William Young, whose alleged conduct has brought a class action lawsuit upon him. The suit alleges that when this judge took office, he instituted a policy of levying a $500 fine against anyone who fights their ticket and loses. It further states that he instituted a policy of closing his courtroom to the public, thus shielding his activities from the public eye.

Some plaintiffs were individuals who had received tickets but chose not to challenge them because they asserted that Judge Young’s policy, of fining anyone who challenged their tickets, discouraged them from fighting, even though they thought they were innocent.

While not as egregious as the alleged policies of Judge Young in Indianapolis, recipients of tickets in New York have similarly themed complaints. Often, the structure of the legal system discourages all but a few from fighting even illegitimate tickets.

The court appearances which are required are so numerous and time-consuming that it is almost impossible to fight. Most people don’t understand how the system works and assume that the court date they are given on their ticket is the date when the ticket will be disposed of, either for better or worse. But this is not the reality.

In most localities, the first court date is merely for ”arraignments.” This means that people are simply asked to plead either guilty or not guilty. Often, they are also lulled into feeling more comfortable conceding their case by pleading “guilty with an explanation.”  This allows the person to feel that they are at least getting to say something, while still saving the locality the trouble of having to prove guilt. This process can entail wasting several hours, taking off half a day, or wasting an entire evening in court.

If one perseveres and manages to plead “not guilty” on the first court date, he will have to come to court again, but not for an actual determination of guilt or innocence. Rather, he will usually come in for a “conference,” i.e. a meeting between the individual and a local prosecutor. If one makes it this far, most people end up making a plea deal with the prosecutor. So instead of paying, let’s say, $130 for a cell phone ticket+surcharge, you may end up paying only $110. Whoopee!

The prospect of this outcome alone is enough to encourage most people to cut their losses and plead guilty either at their first court appearance, or without even going to court. The time off from work or hours lost waiting in court are often not worth the $20-$30 saved by coming to a plea arrangement with the prosecutor.

For those brave souls who do not come to a plea deal with the prosecutor, there will be a third court appearance for the actual trial. And if you are lucky and the case isn’t adjourned to a fourth date for some reason, that will be your chance to disprove the locality’s case against you and either be found guilty or innocent.

The sheer investment of time and the time one may have to take off from work, depending on the time of the court dates, are enough to discourage most people from challenging their ticket.

For a person with multiple tickets or more serious charges like a misdemeanor or DWI, it is often worthwhile to hire an attorney, like those at our office, to represent him. If you need assistance with a traffic court, criminal, or any other kind of legal matter, you can contact the attorneys at The Law Office of Elliot Schlissel anytime, 24/7, at 800-344-6431, or by e-mail.

Picture courtesy of bizingo.com.

When a Motorist receives a Traffic Citation, prompt attention is required, or severe Penalties may be imposed, which could include: a Driver’s License Suspension, Fines, Costs, Vehicle Impound, Increased Insurance Rates, Loss of Insurance Coverage and even Jail.  Traffic Offenses should be carefully reviewed and promptly resolved by Payment of the Citation or Court Challenge.

  Be advised, that “Points” assessed against a Driver’s License can substantially raise Insurance Premiums by Hundreds of Dollars, per “Point”, and also result in loss of Driving Privileges. Often a Court Challenge of the Ticket is worth the effort, as a more Just result may be possible, rather than merely paying the Citation.  Never, under any circumstances, ignore a Traffic Citation, as the Fines and Costs will quickly escalate. For a Free Consultation contact The Law Offices Of Samuel G. Forte, Esquire at: (215) 332-5888.  www.fortelawfirm.Law.officelive.com

Join Steve and Sara at 11:00 a.m. on November 15, 2009, when they will be discussing “Traffic Offenses and Laws.”  Tune in to WNOX-FM 100.3 NewsTalk 100 or listen live via the web by visiting http://www.wnoxnewstalk.com.

Call during the show with your questions about Tennessee Traffic Law by dialing (865) 656-TALK (8255) or (800) 951-TALK (8255).  U.S. Cellular and AT&T Wireless customers can also place a free call by dialing *100.  If you prefer, feel free to post your questions and/or comments here on our blog.  We will review the blog before and during the show and attempt to answer your questions on the air.

Feel free to also contact Steve and Sara during the week with your questions by calling our office at (865) 249-7200.

KULLMANN, KLEIN & DIONEDA, ATTORNEYS AT LAW

Speeding Tickets – Traffic Violations, Suspensions, DUI And DWI

Saint Louis Office:  (314) 772-0000

Saint Charles Office:  (636) 946–1033

Granite City Office:  (618) 931-3000

KULLMANN, KLEIN AND DIONEDA, ATTORNEY AT LAW

www.kkdpc.com

Traffic court is a term that refers to a municipality’s specialized judicial process for handling traffic ticket cases. In the United States, a person who is given a citation by a police officer can either plead guilty and pay the indicated fine directly to the court house, by mail, or in some more urban municipalities, on the Internet. If the person wishes to plead not guilty or otherwise contest the charges, he or she is required to appear in court on the predetermined date on the citation, where they may make their case to the judge, or negotiate with the prosecutor before they are called to appear in front of the judge. The person may also request for Trial By Written Declaration in the following states: California, Hawaii, Ohio, and Wyoming. With Trial By Written Declaration, the person does not have to be presented in the court room, he or she may just explain the reason to defense for the case. The Officer will also be required to turn in his or her declaration. The Judge will then make a decision based on the declarations and evidences from both sides.

More serious charges, such as DUI, or other instances wherein the person in question may be responsible for injuries to another, may require the person to appear in court regardless of their plea. Some municipalities process guilty pleas of this nature outside of the presence of an actual judge, whereas others may require them to appear in court. Often these charges are handled by the larger criminal court.

Each state handles traffic matters in its own way. In most of New York State, for example, traffic matters are heard in the court for the city, town, or village where the alleged violation happened. The town and village courts are known as Justice Courts. Each municipality has its own way of doing things. New York City traffic matters (and a few other locations) are heard in a special court called Traffic Violations Bureau, with a very different process. New Jersey handles traffic matters in the Municipal Court System, with the most serious cases heard in Superior Court. In Washington, D.C. traffic tickets are handled by the Department of Motor Vehicles. In California tickets are handled in Superior Court. Massachusetts tickets are heard in District Courts. In the City of Chicago, traffic tickets issued by Chicago Police Officers with no possibility of jail time are handled by the City’s Law Department, frequently by law students. All other traffic violations (including those issued by state police) are dealt with by the Cook County State’s Attorney.

We’re doing even more repeat business than usual at Speedticketbeaters.com this last few months.  

We’ve always done a lot of repeat business. Mainly because we’re geniuses at writing perfect, tailor made defenses, for any speed ticket in the United States. We don’t offer a “cookie cutter”, E-Book download.  We actually give you a speeding ticket defense made for your ticket.

BUT, these days the percentage of repeat customers is way up. This is probably because the rate at which police departments are writing speed tickets is out of control!

The cities are all struggling economically, and they are taking it out on you, by writing more speeding tickets than usual. Be extra careful out there. And keep our website email address in your favorites/bookmarks.

A woman was found guilty in traffic court and when asked for her occupation she said she was a schoolteacher. The judge rose from the bench. “Madam, I have waited years for a schoolteacher to appear before this court.”

He smiled with delight. “Now sit down at that table and write ‘I will not run a red light’ five hundred times.”

At Speedticketbeaters.com we get this all day:

Customer Question:  “I live in ___, and I don’t want to have to go all the way to ____ to fight my speed ticket.  Can you guys still help me?”

Speedticketbeaters answer:  “NO!”

Our website makes this very clear, so we are not sure why we’re still getting this question every day?!

Get this straight…You cannot win without being there to argue the speeding ticket! Why? Because just like they lose if the cop doesn’t show up, you lose if you don’t! You need to be there to present a defense. How in the world can you possibly win without doing that?! 

Now, we guarantee there’s someone reading this (probably someone in California) who’s thinking we’re wrong, because their state offers “Trial By Declaration” (aka a TBD). They think a speed ticket can be beaten by sending a defense in the mail. This thinking is basically WRONG again! Why is this thinking wrong?

For you to win a Trial by Declaration (TBD) involves either:

a) The cop not responding with their own version of events when the court wants an answer from them to your statement

OR

b) The court admitting that the cops version of events isn’t good enough, and you are truly “right”, and therefore win

But the state is TOTALLY corrupt! All they care about is making as much money as possible off of you, and using it for their purposes.  So the state is NEVER going admit that either one of  “a” or “b” above happened. They are simply going to claim the cop responded (even if he or she didn’t) and your argument is the losing end.  Or that the cops version of things is right, and yours is wrong.  And here’s the KEY to WHY that plan will work for them: YOU HAVE NO WAY TO CHECK IF THEY ARE TELLING THE TRUTH, BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT THERE! They can CLAIM anything they want! They’ll claim the cop did respond, or that the cop had a great argument against you. They’ll say whatever they want! YOU HAVE NO WAY TO PROVE THEY’RE LYING!!

In order to win on your speeding ticket, you have got to be there! Watching their every snake like move! You can’t let the state operate in the dark, without you watching, and being able to see what the cop did or didn’t say and do, RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES!

An additional reason you will never win doing “TBD” is because you are guaranteed to write things into the TBD defense that ends up incriminating you. You do not understand law. We do! You are clueless about what to say (and not say). We are not! With our 10 million times higher level knowledge of speeding ticket law, even we would lose more than 80 perecent of the time if we were doing TBD’s!  

So stop thinking the court is an annoying distance away to travel to. Start remembering that you likely do not have a job that is paying you $1000 a day. And that is the average total amount you will lose (car insurance increase and speed ticket fine combined), if you do not go there and beat them!

Do you need to do it on the date they scheduled? No. You can change the date to make it convenient for you.  In fact, if it is really far away, schedule for the next time you are going to be going through that area. Maybe the speeding ticket was written when you were visiting family during Thanksgiving? Or maybe you’re a trucker or sales person who drives through that state often? In either case, you will at some point be back in that area again (to see your family, or drive through on a sales call or trucking run). Schedule to traffic court trial date to fit that time period. Just don’t keep thinking you can win without doing so!

Worst Day Ever

After dreading this day for so long, I finally realized I must face it. Today was my court appearance day. All I had to do was show up to the judge and say “I plead not guilt, your Honor.” To avoid the foul and despised LA/OC traffic, I departed LA at 7:00 am. The first stop of my trip was to fill up with Rockstars and sunflower seeds. After that, I drove to the San Diego Superior Court. The drive there was extremely ironic. I drove 80+ the whole way to San Diego (and back). Following behind speedsters allows me to be shielded from radar guns and such (drafting!  Jk). Everyone on the freeway was driving at the speed or above the speed I got caught at. When I finally got to San Diego, I turned on the wrong freeway. To no surprise, I see a Koopa Troopa pointing a radar gun at the incoming traffic. Damn Bowser.

Once I got to the courthouse, however, shit happened. I lost my wallet.

I frantically searched the car for it and found nothing. Searching through my pants, bags and all the compartments, I realized I was in deeper trouble than I was before. I left my wallet at the gas station back in Diamond Bar. With all helplessness, I called my dad and told him about the situation. He gave me the gas stations number and cancelled the checks in my wallet. When I called the gas station, the attendant found nothing around her. I realized I must go back home because I had no money and no identification.

Making matters worse, I was out of gas.

God Bless Good Samaritans and Japanese People

A kind stranger gave me ten dollars for gas after I explained him my situation. Those ten dollars allowed me to drive all the way back home only because I had my Camery. Getting back and forth in two hours was literally amazing. When I got back home, I grabbed my Passport, old Driver’s license and a new check. From there, I drove back to San Diego in an hour. Sitting in the waiting area I received a call from my dad.

“David, mom found your wallet. It was between the seat and the handbrake.”

Another Life Lesson

Why am I so careless?

Raves

Nice Strangers

Japanese people and Japanese Cars

Dad (for not killing me)

Rants

Me.

Mom (for killing me)

Me.

Linda (for being frustrated and not listening to what I have to say)

Me.

Koopa Troopa (for giving me the damn ticket in the first place)

Me.

Observations

I find conservative radio the best to listen to when you are having 1000x emotions. The conservatards totally make fun of those left winged hippies. The sarcasm I find while listening totally kept my mind off of recreating the gas station scene in my head.

Only Asians dress up to traffic court. Taking a look around I immediately realized I was over dressed. Taking a second look around made me realize I was not the only one. Go Asians!

I want to be a Koopa Troopa

Having the fate of people’s well being at my hands is nice to have. I would totally let a crying girl who “ran” a red light pass. Wouldn’t it be awesome to see people break down in front of you? It would totally boost my ego.

Koopa Troopas!

Reading lifehacker.com articles about getting away from speeding tickets has led me to believe that all Koopa Troopas (with exception of some) are egomaniacs yet are still human. Koopa Troopas (or anyone) would appreciate a confidence boost when their authority is fully exercised.  You are also supposed to have lettering conversations and lunch with that Krappa Troopa. Giving them a ego injection yet tell them they are still human is probably the best treatment for Koopa Troopas.

Pride Comes Before Fall

I always have to picture this proverb in my head to fully understand it. I always think of hurdles every time someone says this to me.  Hurdles or those giant impediments in our lives are rather contradiction to this proverb. A lot of asian mothers I have talked to told me that Krappa Troopas fear letter writing. I mean, come on, ASIAN MOTHERS! (my mom is a fob).  They keep on telling me that most Koopa Troopas only have a high school diploma. Maybe being a intellectual in America might help you for fighting the Koopa Troopas.

Nevermind

I would never pass the physical test. I eat too much fatty food.

Apples Beatles Cats

I was never a Beatles fan. Yes, I am a fob. 09/09/09 has brought the digital Beatles movement to another level. I realized for years iTunes store lacked the famous band. Today marked the remastered version of their songs. All the Apple/Beatles enthusiasts hoped for this day to come. Apple scheduled another “show and tell” today 10am PST. Seeing the close “coincidence”, many Beatles fans probably had a heart attack.

I did not have any Internet access since this morning. I do not know what Apple unleashed this time. What I DO know is that 1. Its not about the tablets. 2. Its NOT about the Beatles. However, I hope I am proved wrong once I read the live blog/summary.

Heres your shout out Kaht(Cats) have you found Emma Watson yet?

25

The number being called is currently 25. My number is not 25. It is 39.

Security Checks

People just do not understand that they must take off ALL metal objects before going through the METAL detector. Watches, Coins and Belts ALL contain metals.  I can’t imagine the annoyance this door Koopa have to go through.

Leather Boots

The boots that Krappa Troopas have are really shiny and long. They can be anime characters from the waist down.

There are too many people here

All cities are broke. Everyone is getting a ticket. Some two.

Rockstar

How come they sponsor sports related organizations but not software companies. I firmly believe that we computer science engineers drink more (and need more) Rockstars then sports people.

I am hungry

I don’t have money

iPhones at Concerts

Totally unrelated, I never seen anyone using their palm pre to record concerts. Btw, iPhone 3GS have the hardware play 720 HD videos. It will be another year probably for apple to release another $10 software upgrade.

FBI Badges vs ID Cards

People with ID cards or non-FBI important people simply bypass the security check by ducking under those stretchable line-forming things. FBI tries to figure out how to remove the line forming stretching things and FAILS. It’s not that hard.

I think a Koopa Troopa is looking over my shoulders

Just kidding, I have my first amendment rights anyways.

I need a new phone

Pay $36 to receive 15% off if you are a student using AT&T.

It’s my turn!

Time to get this over with and GTFO!\

Clement Tsai

My brother Clement is in critical condition at the hospital. Please keep him in your prayers

R.I.P. Clement Tsai

03/23/1990 – 09/10/2009

Have you ever failed to pay all or part of a ticket, and then unknowingly had your license suspended, and then continued to drive using that suspended license?[1] Have you ever hung out in a club or bar where people were using drugs?[2] Do you know anyone who has failed to keep their property clean?[3] If so, it is possible for the police to arrest you and, until recently in New York City,[4] strip search you!

The law in New York states that a police officer may arrest you if he sees you commit a misdemeanor.[5] The three crimes listed above (and many others) qualify as misdemeanors, and so if the police observe you committing one of them, they are permitted to, but are not obligated to, arrest you.

The New York City Department of Corrections made it a practice to strip searchall misdemeanants charged with drug or weapons crimes who were detained upon arrest as well. The City claimed that “like felony detainees, [these misdemeanants] could never legitimately claim that they had a ‘right’ not to be strip searched.”[6] 

Unfortunately, there are major problems with the City’s logic. The 4^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as applied against the States by the 14^th Amendment, prohibits the government from conducting “unreasonable” searches and seizures. Claiming that the Dept. of Corrections violated this Constitutional provision, a group of arrestees who had been strip searched at Riker’s Island without any individualized inquiry as to whether they were likely to be hiding weapons or contraband, sued the City of New York for violation their Constitutional right not to be searched “unreasonably.”[7]

Mark Hamblett, in the New York Law Journal, pointed out Southern District Judge Gerard Lynch’s recent finding in this case that the city is liable for violating the Constitutional right of those arrestees.[8]He pointed out that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that “it is ‘long-standing precedent’ that before a misdemeanant may be lawfully strip-searched on intake, the Fourth Amendment requires an individualized ‘reasonable suspicion that [he] is concealing weapons or other contraband based on the crime charged, the particular characteristics of the arrestee, and/or the circumstances of the arrest.’”[9]

Judge Lynch reaffirmed the notion that the Constitutional default setting of the police should be “Do Not Search” mode. Deviations from that require some specific, individualized justification. The police must have some specific reasons to justify a “reasonable suspicion” that a detainee may be in possession of either contraband or a weapon that poses a danger to the police.

The bottom line is that it is better not to commit any misdemeanors to begin with. But if you are arrested for one, the police need some specific facts on which to base a suspicion that you in particular have contraband or weapons (that would be revealed by a strip search) in order to conduct a strip search. If the police find anything illegal during a strip search, and the search was conducted without “reasonable suspicion,” you may be able to have that evidence suppressed. So be sure to hire a good criminal defense attorney to help you with this or any other criminal defense matter.

[1]NY Veh. & Traf. § 511(1) (West 2009)

[2] NY Penal § 240.36 (West 2008)

[3] NY Penal § 240.45 (West 2008)

[4]McBean v. City of New York City, 2009 WL 2524617 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 14, 2009)

[5]NY Crim. Proc. § 140.50 (West 2004)

[6]McBean at *6.

[7]McBean at *1-2.

[8]McBean at *6.

[9]Kelsey v. County of Schoharie, 567 F.3d 54, 62 (2d Cir.2009)

I’ve intended to post an interview on here this week as well as other posts, but I haven’t found the time.

Besides taking an accounting class, this past week I finally started doing my 40 hours of community service as ordered by a judge in traffic court (I had a failure to appear and late fines on top of what originally was a fix-it ticket on expired tags). I managed to make it through 10 hours so far over two days, and it’s not easy. Most of the work consists of delivering textbooks from a storage room to classes at Hollywood High School, where I was assigned.

Oh, and Laurence Fishburne apparently got his Hollywood High on before stardom.

filling out university applications makes me want to play neopets.
how funny.
cuz when i was applying to go to humboldt state, i would play neopets all the time.

well, i’ve applied for financial aid.
found out i can write a letter to the traffic court pleading with the judge to grant me pardon?

trying to figure everything out.
if i moved to reno, couldn’t i just get a reno driver’s license and use that? would i still be able to drive to california? hm.
probably still a good idea to write that letter to the judge.
DEEP BREATH.

i need to get my energy in a better place.
this is fun. i’ve got goals! aspirations! inspiration!
yeah!
not gonna waste another year.

Yesterday, for the first time in a long time, I got up before the sun.  I actually got up when the alarm went off, rather than hitting the snooze button.  With my all-for-me time, I got back downstairs for another session with your friend and mine, Wii Fit.  I had to have some coffee to fortify me, so I gulped down the fiery brew and put in 45 minutes with Super Hula Hoop, Snowboarding, Advanced Step, Boxing and a touch of Yoga.  I even had time for a shower before I had to take my daughter to school. 

Yet now I had another problem.  I was huuuuungry!  I grabbed some fresh raspberries and blackberries and tossed them in a bowl with some cottage cheese for breakfast.  For something rather diet-like, it was so good!  I had forgotten what breakfast is supposed to be like.  I often skip it because what often passes for breakfast is greasy, fattening or heavy.  Not so with my breakfast!  Normally, I don’t like berries other than strawberry, yet when Costco had flats of them on sale, I decided to give them another try.  I’m sure glad I did!  I’ve benn eating them for snacks, dessert, and now, even for breakfast. 

I don’t know why I got up at 5:35am yesterday…….yet perhaps it was a way of my body telling me that I can do things that I thought I couldn’t do.  Later that morning, I had to go to court to fight an illegal u-turn ticket I received in April.  I decided to challenge the ticket (my first in 14 years!) because I genuinely believed that I made a legal u-turn, not because I thought I had a real chance of getting it thrown out of court.  It was worth my time to plead not guilty and challenge the ticket simply because I thought I was in the right.  Sitting in court that morning, I sat waiting as dozens of people were fined amazing amounts of money for various offenses.  When it was my turn with the judge, I stated my case, presented my photographic evidence, and listened as the judge declared me not guilty of making an illegal u-turn!  As far as I could tell, I was the only person who was found not guilty that morning, and I left the courtroom elated!  Not only do I get the charge off my driving record, I get my $202 bail returned and I have the satisfaction of knowing that I did something that I might not have normally done – stand up for myself.

This victorious day in traffic court happened on the same day that I got up early and took some time to exercise and eat a healthy breakfast.  A coincidence?  Perhaps……

Today, I was at the San Mateo County Traffic Courthouse in San Mateo, CA.

I came away impressed at how the judge had organized a very lean mean operation! I think this was the Court of Judge Susan Greenberg, now may be Jugde Susan Collins, if I remember right.

There were about 60 or 70 people showing up to plead Guilty, No Contest or Not Guilty to the traffic citation that was issued.  She took care of all 60 to 70 people in about an hour’s time! All with a lot of very good lean thinking, I realized.

There were two bailiffs that called people by name one by one and had them take a seat in the courthouse in such a way that when their name is called, they don’t need to step over any other’s legs to get to the podium.  This cut down on time for any person to get a quick hearing.

All of the people assembling there had their papers arranged in a pile in the order they were called ahead of time. She had two Bailiffs sit in front of her, one for scheduling court dates on the computer if they plead Not Guilty and another to write out the fines on a fine slip if they pled Guilty or No Contest.

She had a wooden slide like-plank that sloped down from her desk to the bailiffs desk below so that she can pass the papers along quickly by placing it on this slide and it slides down to the bailiffs. Eliminate unnecessary turning back and forth, handling papers!

Everybody who showed up got the same discount of $100 on their fine without any argument (I am not sure how legal or fair this is but  at least it improved the business process!). As soon as the people were done one by one, their papers were collected by office clerks every five minutes or so . When you went outside they called your name out one by one and you paid your fine if a fine was acceptable to you and you were out of there!

Traffic court is a hassle. People take one or two hours from work to attend this. It is gratifying to see such excellent Lean Thinking, and that too, from the Government.

Your tax dollars are always not wasted! Sometimes the Government can teach you how to do certain things in a very lean way!

I believe that judges have some leeway in organizing their operations in their mold. If that’s the case,  this judge has done a great job! 

 A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless.  – Charles de Gaulle

All day every day, we at Speedticketbeaters.com are confronted by customers who cannot get this concept down. IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THE STATE AGREES TO ASSIGN YOU NO POINTS FOR THE SPEED TICKET! YOUR CAR INSURANCE IS STILL GOING UP IF YOU AGREE TO PLEAD GUILTY!! 

We don’t know how many different places we are going to have to say this. We say it over and over again! We say it on our website. We say it in emails. We say it on the phone. We say it in this blog.  No matter how many times we say and write it, it doesn’t seem to get through.

Points are a SEPARATE issue from insurance increases. Part of the speeding scam the states run against you is to give you the false sense of security that if you have no points assessed for your speeding ticket, you get to avoid the insurance increase. This is FALSE information! And they know it! As usual the traffic court is scamming you!

Points are nothing more than DMV demerits against your license. They are used by the state to determine whether or not to suspend or revoke your license. They have nothing to do with getting an insurance increase from your auto insurance, when you are found guilty. Being found guilty of the speeding ticket GETS YOU THE INSURANCE INCREASE! Regardless of whether or not there were points! How many languanges do we need to start saying this in? We do not want to hear anymore “We’ll they told me if I plead guilty I’d get no points”. SO WHAT! If you plead guilty you’re getting an insurance increase! Points have nothing to do with it. Just so we are clear for anyone who could be reading this:

1) Being found guilty of the speeding ticket GETS YOU THE INSURANCE INCREASE regardless of whether or not there were points!

2) ¡Ser declarado culpable del boleto veloz LE CONSIGUE EL AUMENTO de SEGURO a pesar de si o no había los puntos!

3) Est trouvé coupable du billet expédiant VOUS OBTIENT L’AUGMENTATION D’ASSURANCE sans tenir compte de s’il y avait des points !

We hope this has been clear enough for everyone.

Thanks.

Speedticketbeaters.com 

…No, that’s not the subject today. It’s what I wish had happened Monday afternoon, instead of what actually did.

Over the Limit!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I ran into a speed trap on my way to work a few weeks ago. A friend was giving me a ride while my car was in the shop, and she thought I wouldn’t mind driving while she finished her makeup (okay, I’m not singling out one woman, I think every woman I’ve ever been in a car with has decided that a moving car is the right place for face maintenance — I don’t get it — but there it is). Anyway, it’s the stretch of I-55 South near the Valero refinery just before the road narrows to two lanes.

I was driving about as fast as everyone does going through there every morning; trying to get in front of the tractor-trailers before the road narrows. I’m not complaining that I got stopped; I was the closest to where the officer was with the radar gun. I’m not even complaining that I was cited; he gave me a little break, putting me down as only going 9 mph over the limit (it was a little more).

The Criminal Justice Center

He told me if I went in on the court date, I could probably “get away” with only paying court costs and the ticket wouldn’t go on my permanent record (is there a George Carlin bit in here somewhere?). Fine. It’s been about 12 years since I’ve had any reason to visit 201 Poplar, so what the heck? Funny aside: when I went down to cover court cases when I was reporting at WREG, people would see a clean-cut man in a tie and constantly ask me to represent them. I never did, I was already impersonating a reporter, I didn’t want to press my luck.

I was talking about my upcoming trip to a coworker who shared what the current procedure for traffic court is (it’s none of your business how that person knows; let’s just assume they’re well informed). I was cautioned to go early; if the ticket said 1:30pm, show up at noon. Go directly to the sign that says “Line for Div. 2 begins here,” and stand there. Don’t even think about sitting in the chairs facing the courtrooms — stay in the line against the wall. Earliest in, earliest out.

I forgot my iPod, but did take the Commercial Appeal and the new issue of Newsweek (another aside — the person who delivers my newspaper double bags it, even on days when it’s not raining. However, if it’s dry out, the paper makes it all the way to the door, under the overhang. When it’s rainy, it’s always on sidewalk, in the open, where it gets half-soaked, even with the double bagging).

My business with the City of Memphis

So there I stand, first in line, holding my speeding ticket and reading my paper, which was dry and crunchy by this time. The guy next to me had to drive in from Fayette County. Slowly, the line grew, all of us shifting as we stood waiting for a police officer to open the courtroom doors at 1:30. There were people sitting in the chairs along the walls across from the courtroom. One of them even asked those of us in line if he should be there too. I guess it happens this way every day, but eventually, an office poked his head out of Division 2 and said, “y’all be sure to be standing in line if you’re hear for court.” A large groan spread among the bench sitters, with several trying to make a case to either the officer or to those of use at the front of the line. Now, I’m just a taxpayer, but with all the signage on the lower level of that building, hasn’t somebody thought about posting clearer instructions about what we’re supposed to do there?  Really?

Right at half-past one, the doors opened and the officer brought the first few of us in. A couple of lawyers were allowed to cut in front of me.  Judge Sugarmon’s robe was draped on his chair, but he was nowhere to be seen. The clerk looked up and gestured, I went up and handed her the little computer print out that had been giving to people in line about 1:15.  She asked how I was doing, I said fine. Then she handed me the paper back and told me that I’d be able to pay the 63 bucks by mail or at any police precinct. Again, not wanting to press my luck, I bit my tongue instead of asking, why we just couldn’t pay the clerk in this building!!! Maybe I should have, but at that point, I just wanted to leave.

Enlightened Administration

Now here’s the classic part. Here we are in 2009, and the preferred way the largest city in the state of Tennessee wants its citizens to pay fines is to go to one location to find out what the fine is, then go another location to pay the fine. Or go home and write a check. To be fair, City Clerk Thomas Long’s office does have an online link to facilitate electronic payments, but it’s not on the bill they give you. You have to look half-way down the back of your original ticket.

When you go the site, you easily look up your violation, using the ticket number, your driver’s license number or by putting in your name and date of birth. Pretty easy. A pop-up tells you how much, and you can click to pay by credit card (here comes the really classic part). You can only pay online if you’re using Master Card! Visa? Nope. American Express? Sorry. Discover? They still make those? They could only make this harder by making you make payments in pennies.

I’ll be writing a check. It won’t go on my permanent record, and at least it’s not Germantown. Their traffic court is after work and I here that unless you have a lawyer, everybody pays a fine.

One of the most frequent questions we get at Speedticketbeaters.com is “How come you guys claim that you know how to beat a speeding ticket, and that lawyers do not”?

The answer is pretty simple.

Lawyers do NOT study any traffic law in law school. There is no law school in the U.S that includes traffic law/speed ticket violations as part of its corriculum. The result is that lawyers come out of law school knowing all about contracts, personal injury law, divorce law, high level criminal defense (IE: drug arrests, murder, robbery), etc, etc, but not speeding law!

This ends up causing attorneys who are working on speeding tickets to go to court and simply try to plea bargain the ticket to a lower fine/lower speed violation. That is NOT beating a speed ticket! You still end up paying a fine, there’s still a guilty going on your record of some kind, you could still face a car insurance increase, etc. On top of that, you still ended up paying the lawyer a lot of money, to do the terrible job he or she did!  Winning in the Speedticketbeaters definition means you avoided ALL of that! In fact, we believe in some cases, lawyers are “in bed” with the counties they represent speeding ticket victims in. We believe they often have arrangements with those counties possibly involving kickbacks.

A good amount of our business at Speedticketbeaters.com is from lawyers needing us to train them on how to beat a speeding ticket. Some times we deal with a customer who doesn’t want to go to court (or is attending, but doesn’t want to speak in traffic court). In cases like that, we often end up providing the defense materials to his or her attorney. The lawyer then uses our stuff in court to beat the speed ticket.

We also get emails from cops or judges who received a speed ticket when they were driving out of state, and the speeding ticket needs to be beaten. They are totally clueless on how to beat a speeding ticket too!

People also ask us pretty often, why law schools don’t teach lawyers traffic law. The answer again is simple. There is not enough money in traffic law, for an attorney to be motivated to make traffic law a significant part of their law practice.

Let’s face facts, lawyers are money hungry, sharks. Most lawyers do not care about you per se. They care about how much money they can charge clients, so that they become rich. How many lawyers have you met that were not money motivated? Not very many. They are generally, pretty emotionally bankrupt people. So naturally, people like that demand that law schools teach them the skills that make them the most money. Defending you against you $150 speeding ticket, is not one of the skills that they care to learn. But it is our specialization. Our only skill. At Speedticketbeaters.com!

A Speedticketbeaters.com Editorial:

All over the United States police departments are out in force, beating down the low lives who rob, rape, and murder, while you sleep soundly knowing your tax money is being put to good use. Not quite… 

Most police departments are under strict orders to harrass you, and steal your money for the cities gain, through speeding tickets (as opposed to attempting to handle what they perceive as unmanagable crime).

Let’s use the city of Los Angeles as an example. When one takes into account the combination of population, and the physical size of the L.A area, it becomes clear that L.A is the hardest to police city in the United States. New York City has a slightly larger population, but New York is a much smaller area physically. And L.A has one quarter the amount of cops that New York does.

With that in mind, is the LAPD stretched too thin? YES. Therefore should the LAPD be out writing speed tickets instead of managing the crime in an enormous area, with too few cops. NO! 

We find it astounding that Los Angeles has not ordered its police to department to actually go out and do something productive, as opposed to spending the day looking for “53’s in a 40″ to write up for speeding! But that is what they do. All day, every day! The officials that run that city (and former NYPD police chief William Bratton should know better), should be ashamed.

Attention LAPD: You have one quarter the amount of cops New York has, and have a much bigger area to patrol. “ALL HANDS ON DECK”! You have no time (in what should your busy schedules), to be harrassing the citizens of your city with speed tickets! Instead, you are supposed to be out there (every one of you), protecting them from actual crime!

Now there’s probably someone reading this, that is thinking, we’re the “dummies”. That we need to “understand that driving above the speed limit causes more accidents”. Or that “the city needs to make the money it makes on speeding tickets”. Or that “California is in a budget crisis, and now more than ever needs the revenue stream that speeding tickets provide”. Let us shoot these ridiculous concepts down:

1) RE: The false notion that driving above the speed limit causes more accidents - Every study ever conducted on the topic shows that more accidents are caused by drivers driving too slow, than by drivers driving too fast! This is not to say that driving absurdly fast, with a loud engine, drag racing, or crazily aggressively driving, are smart ideas. And it goes without saying, that drunk driving is also totally unacceptable. You are moron if you do any of those, and deserve whatever consequences law enforcement heaps on you. But the majority of speed tickets written are for 5-15 MPH over the speed limit. That means most speeding tickets being written are tickets like 42 in a 35, or 51 in a 40, or 73 in a 65, etc. Not one cop, should be spending even one second, bothering to write speeding tickets like those. Attention Officer: When you went into the police academy, was that your idea of what you wanted to do with your police work, “McGruff”? We didn’t think so!

2) RE: A city needs the revenue stream that speeding tickets provide - A cities desire to make money, is not something to burden the ordinary (non-criminal) citizens with! There is absolutely no excuse for a city to attempt to extort money from people, with over zealous speeding enforcement! Here’s some better ideas:

a) Actually fight and beat back real crime! A truly safe city, will no doubt be one that more people are attracted to doing business in, and with.

b) Eliminate the ”Traffic Division”. Shift every one of those cops to doing real police work. Not taking five meal breaks a day, in between writing speed tickets, to harmless Grandpas, cranking their Pontiacs up to a cool 51 MPH!

If you live in a city (or state) that thinks it is ok to exploit your wallet for their gain, while not handling the actual crime they should all be focused on…Write to your local politicians! Demand that they order the police to stop this nonsense, and start putting all of their resources into protecting you and your family from actual danger.

And on a related side note…To add insult to inury, 90% of the “speed limits” in the United States were knowingly set too low, so as to force every driver to be “speeding” at all times. But that is a lot to explain to you, that you will not yet understand. You do not know the law as we do, and how it is supposed to be applied when it comes to speeding enforcement. So, we’ll cover this issue, and explain this sort of stuff to you when you have an actual speed ticket that needs handling, and you have contacted us at Speedticketbeaters.com.

…They don’t!

“Points” are state DMV “demerits” that affect whether or not your drivers license is eligible for suspension or revokation.  Car insurance increases are determined by whether or not you were found or plead guilty to the speeding violation.

Every day we speak to customers who tell us that the court told them that there are “no points” associated with the speeding ticket, or that if they agree to take a lower speed guilty verdict, that there will be “no points’. When the court tells you such things, as usual they are attempting to scam you! Their goal is to get you to feel that it is “safe” to plead guilty and pay them, because no points must mean no insurance increase. THEY ARE LYING! 

Get this statement in your head, and stop thinking about anything else: If you are found guilty, your car insurance is going up! Period.

Stop getting hung up on the word “points”. Just go to traffic court, using the custom written Speedticketbeaters defense, and beat the ticket! That’s it. There is nothing else you should agree to with the court or county that issued your speed ticket.

You should not be accepting traffic school, deferred adjudification, or other deferrals. You should simply beat your speed ticket to death. That is what we do at Speedticketbeaters.com all day! We beat speeding tickets!

Lawrence Newman love practicing DWI defense law within the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. For more information about “Traffic Lawyer’s Advice: Three Things You Must Know Before Going to Your DWI Alcohol Evaluation” or “Driving While Intoxicated (DWI/DUI)” please visit www.town-court.com.