Even if you are the safest, most careful driver on the road, you will at some point get a speeding ticket. This is obviously true, because you’re here on this website looking for information to beat your speeding ticket. Speeding tickets are not just for  reckless people who drive 100+ miles on the freeway. Drive just a couple miles over the limit around a school or some other severely speed restricted area and a police officer is likely to write you a ticket. Most of the time our reaction is that we are being made the bad guy for some minor infraction and we often have the desire to fight what we perceive as an unfair traffic ticket.

Many speeding tickets are issued for gross violations of speed, but we all know police departments that stake out areas with speed limits that are just too low (and unfair) for the type of terrain that they encompass. A 40mph limit going down a long steep hill, for example. The only way to not get a ticket is to ride the brakes all the way down. But most people don’t know a cop is waiting for them until they see the flashing police lights in their rear view mirrors. Gotcha!

When you show up to court, make sure to show up on time. Show up late and you’re likely to lose the case because of your no-show. Make sure that you’re neat, clean and presentable. Don’t wear shorts or you may not even be allowed into the courtroom. Be respectful of everyone around, particularly the court officers and clerks. You can hope that the police officer doesn’t show up for the court date, but you don’t want to count on that. If the officer doesn’t show up, you may have the case against you dropped immediately. However, the cop will usually be there and you’ll have to move to “plan b”.

Speeding tickets are usually issued with radar gun evidence, or with pacing evidence where the police car followed you for some time to establish your speed. Was the cop moving when he checked your speed?  This will throw of the reading if the gun isn’t properly calibrated, and guess what most guns aren’t calibrated properly! If the officer used radar, ask for the licensing and service records for the radar gun used. When was the last time it was serviced and calibrated. Depending on the state where the speeding ticket was issued, the radar evidence could be inadmissible if the radar gun went too long without servicing or maintenance. Perhaps there was heavy traffic and the officer got his radar reading from some vehicle other than yours? Maybe the officer simply wasn’t holding his radar gun steady and the movement gave a false reading? It’s worth a try.

If the judge rules against you, you can always ask to go to traffic school. Traffic school will cost you some extra money, but it won’t raise your car insurance rates, if at all. And traffic school will also remove the “points” that a traffic speeding ticket puts on your driving record. Too many points within a certain timeframe, and your driver’s license could be suspended or revoked. Traffic school is the better alternative. If you’re like me, you don’t want to just give up and pay your ticket. But you also know that going to court unprepared is likely to end up with you still on the losing side. You’ve got to check out TrafficTicketSecrets for some simple, yet extremely effective ways to beat your traffic ticket.