Category Archives: General Tickets

Prove Your Conduct Was “Legally Justified”

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You may also successfully argue that your actions were “legally justified” considering the circumstances of your alleged violation. For example, if you were charged with driving too slowly in the left lane, it is a legal defense in all states that you had to slow down to make a lawful left turn. In this situation you do not have to deny that you were driving significantly below the speed limit and causing vehicles behind you to slow down, but you can offer the additional fact that legally justifies your otherwise unlawful action. Such defenses can be very successful because they raise an additional fact or legal point, rather than simply contradicting the officer’s testimony.

Here are a couple of examples of situations in which this defense might work to clear your ticket.

  • You are forced to stop on a freeway because your car has begun to make a loud and dangerous-sounding noise and you fear you would put other drivers in danger if you continued to drive without checking it out.
  • You swerved into the right lane without signaling a lane change to pull over because a hornet flew into your car through your open window.
  • You had sudden and severe chest pain and safely exceeded the posted speed limit to get to the doctor, whose office was only one half-mile away.

These tips have help me win several traffic violations.

 

Fight your traffic ticket

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Challenge the Officer’s Observations and win

In cases where your state law requires an objective observation by the officer (not a judgment call about whether your action was safe), it often boils down to an argument about whose version of the facts is correct. For instance, if you were cited for failing to come to a stop at a red light or for making a prohibited turn, who wins the case will depend on who the judge believes. Unfortunately, the guy wearing the badge usually wins, unless you can cast real doubt on his ability to accurately perceive what happened. However, there are a number of techniques that may work to raise at least a reasonable doubt as to your guilt.

Here are the types of evidence most likely to help you convince the judge that you — not the officer — are in the right:

  • Statements of witnesses, such as passengers or bystanders, who testify to your version of events. Witnesses are probably the strongest defense.
  • A clear, easy-to-understand diagram showing where your vehicle and the officer’s vehicle were in relation to key locations and objects, such as an intersection, traffic signal, or other vehicle. Diagrams are especially important for tickets given at intersections, such as right-of-way, traffic light, or stop sign violations. Take Pictures if possible.
  • Photographs of intersections, stop signs, and road conditions. These can be used to show conditions like obscured stop signs or other physical evidence that backs up your case.
  • Any other evidence that would cast doubt on the officer’s ability to accurately observe your alleged violation. A classic way to do this is to prove his view was obscured — or that his angle of observation made it impossible to accurately see what happened. And therefore the officer is wrong.

Its officially over

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The Los Angeles City Council has voted to end the Red Light Camera program this Sunday.  The Council found that the program was operating at a loss because only 60% of those ticketed actually paid the fines.  The fine were voluntary so the city did not have much power to enforce them.  So what does that mean to those that paid the fines – can we get a refund?  The answer is no because when we paid those fines, must of us admitted to the violations and then tendered our payments.  So you are out of luck if you paid your fine and now what a refund.  For those of you who did not pay you got luck but that may not stop the collection agency from contacting you.

Texting Ban

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The Automobile Club of America is reporting that the 15 month old ban on texting while driving is losing its effect.  Driver survey today are texting more and more.  AAA is advocating an increase in the fine from $20 to $100 for the first violation.

Senate Bill 1475 would also impose one point on a motorist’s driving record.  In California, eight points can lead to a suspended license.

Increase Ticket Prices

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California is looking to its drivings to boost its depleting coffers. The State government is going to look to increase its revenue by raising motor vehicle prices. For example, the ticket for an expired meter in Los Angeles jumped from $40 in 2008 to about $50 last year, and “Fix-it” tickets for minor moving violations such as broken taillights more than doubled.

And officials are now hatching some new ideas to bring in even more money from naughty motorists.

L.A. and other cities are urging the Legislature to allow them to place wheel boots on cars that have as few as three unpaid parking tickets. Currently, the law allows the boot only after a driver accumulates five parking tickets. In L.A. alone, officials estimate the change would help them recover overdue parking citations totaling up to $61 million.

Arnold Schwarzenegger wants cities and counties to install speed sensors on red-light cameras to catch speeding cars. Fines would range from $225 to $325, and state officials estimate the change would generate more than $300 million for the state through the end of 2011.

California is not alone. Government agencies across the country are increasingly boosting parking ticket fees, jacking up the fines for moving violations and looking for other creative ways to make drivers pay more.

Revenue from red-light cameras is also on the rise, doubling in L.A. from $200,000 a month in 2007 to $400,000 a month at the end of 2009, according to estimates prepared by the Los Angeles County Superior Court, which processes ticket payments. The city more than doubled the amount charged for motorists who make rolling right turns against red lights from $156 to $381 in 2008, bringing it in line with other cities.

Additional costs, including traffic school fees, often add to the price drivers pay. Last year, the state increased the fines for traffic tickets and used the proceeds to help renovate courthouses. The changes included a $35 surcharge on traffic tickets.

With California mired in recession and residents unwilling to pay more taxes, focusing on parking and traffic fines is one of relatively few politically palatable ways of raising revenue.

In L.A., the proposal to reduce the number of outstanding tickets before a car is booted comes as officials said they were having trouble collecting parking fines.

About 1.8 million traffic infractions were issued in L.A. County last year, according to the Superior Court, and about 3 million parking tickets are issued each year by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, a figure that has held steady for several years. About one-quarter of those tickets are for violations during street cleaning and run $60. Many parking violators do not pay their tickets on time.

The current policy of five unpaid tickets is an “overly lenient policy that discourages vehicle owners from paying their parking citations in a timely manner,” according to a report by the LADOT.

The threat of getting the boot after three or four unpaid tickets would make owners more likely to pay their citations, officials said, and also boost city coffers.

L.A. collects $19 million under the current parking code. If the number of unpaid parking citations to garner the boot is reduced to four, the city estimates it would recover nearly $26 million in overdue fines. If it is reduced to three, the change would result in an additional $61 million.

Red Light Camera

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The Los Angeles Police Department’s redlight camera program has seen a sharp rise in revenue, this year.

From late 2007 to late 2009, monthly revenue from cameras, now operating at 32 city intersections, has nearly doubled from about $200,000 per month to about $400,000.

Records show that the city’s income now far exceeds that of Culver City and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, both of which had often eclipsed Los Angeles in photo enforcement income.

Los Angeles officials insist the program is intended to reduce accidents and save lives, although red-light camera critics contend cities are chiefly interested in raking in money from automated systems that snag violators 24 hours a day.

The improved financial performance of Los Angeles’ program, one of the largest in the nation, appears to be the result of changes in program administration, not a sharp spike in violations processed through the courts.

Last year, the city more than doubled the amount charged for most of its red-light camera tickets.