Over the years I have heard of some pretty awful defense strategies people use to try and get out of a traffic ticket. You cant blame them though. A lot of these individuals were simply relying on so called insider information they heard from a friend.

In this article we will go over the 5 most common mistakes used by people when trying to fight their traffic ticket. Use these as a guide of what not to do.

Mistake #1- Delaying the traffic court date

The rationale for this, some say, is that the longer you can delay traffic court for your traffic ticket, the likelier the chance the police officer won’t show up at your court date.

Delaying the court date will not improve your chance of having your traffic ticket dismissed.

The question I’ve always had was if you do put off your court date, what do you do when he still shows up?

Then what? Police officers get paid overtime to show up to traffic court.

Mistake #2- Requesting evidence before traffic court.

By law you do have a legal right to see everything the prosecution plans to convict you with. This process is called ‘discovery’ and can be useful in a murder trial. But this isn’t a murder trial and doing so can actually hurt your case.

When you make a motion for discovery and request evidence before your trial, this sends red flags to the prosecution that you are planning a good defense. He’ll take it as a challenge and will prepare his case so efficiently that it becomes almost impossible to win.

Do yourself a favor and don’t even contact the court about anything related to your traffic ticket. You don’t want them to know your familiar with the proceedings of traffic court.

Mistake #3- Doing too much needless research.

There is no need to spend any time reading boring law books. Its pointless.

Only rarely would it be prudent to look up a law so you know how it may be worded, other than that it is needless to do this with most traffic tickets.

Mistake #4- Attacking the officer’s credibility

If you go to traffic court with the idea you are going to attack the officers credibility, don’t waste your time. You can forget getting your traffic ticket dismissed. Saying the officer didn’t use the equipment properly, or that he singled you out or any number of other excuses are useless.

Don’t ever go into traffic court with the idea you are going to challenge the police officers training on the use of the radar gun. This will only draw scrutiny from the judge, who will accept the officers testimony that he is properly trained on the use of the equipment.

The officer will NOT have to prove his training qualifications in the courtroom. Let’s face it, the officer has been properly trained and knows how to work the radar/laser gun. No question about it. If you try and go this route you will be disappointed when the judge asks you to provide evidence supporting your claim.

Mistake #5- Showing up to traffic court unprepared.

Probably the mistake most people make is thinking they did a good job doing their homework prior to their day in traffic court, and actually didn’t have a clue as to what they were doing to get prepared. So they lose their case and end up being convicted of the traffic ticket.

And then there are those who don’t do any research and think that they can tell there side of the story and the judge will have pity on them. Yeah right!

Look, I know the thought of going to traffic court can be a little scary for some, but this isn’t a murder trial. It’s just a simple traffic ticket. Traffic court is set up to be extremely ‘user friendly’ due to the large amounts of people who go there every day.

If you avoid these 5 mistakes you will have a better chance of claiming your victory in traffic court, and hopefully getting that traffic ticket thrown out.

Learn more about traffic tickets and hoe to fight them. Stop by Steven Swihart’s site where you can find out all about traffic violations and how to protect yourself against them.

There are two broad categories of traffic tickets. Knowing which you have is important when determining what to do in your situation.

A lot of times when you have a minor violation and it wont result in any points on your license its best to go ahead and pay it and avoid trying to challenge it in traffic court.

Traffic violations come under two main headings. They can either be moving violations or non moving violations. They usually involve smaller fines and can be something as simple as a parking or headlight ticket.

These can be a nuisance but at least they wont go on your driving history or be reported to your auto insurance.

Non moving violations can be things such as not wearing your seatbelt, a broken headlight or improperly parking your vehicle.

These types of violations are usually better dealt with by just paying the fine. Taking the matter to court is more of a hassle on your part because the fine being imposed is normally not more than $50. The amount of time, energy and cost involved in contesting the charged violation is not worth it. Besides, these types of tickets are very hard to beat in court. I mean, either you parked illegally or you didn’t.

However if the ticket can cleared easily you should certainly try. For example a ticket for a non working tail light can be dismissed if you show proof you fixed it in most cases.

A moving violation on the other hand, is any violation of the law, committed by the driver of a vehicle, while it is in motion. The term “motion” distinguishes it from ‘non-moving’ violations. While parking tickets are charged against a vehicle (which will be towed if violations go unpaid or are frequent), moving violations are charged against the person driving. Moving violations are usually classified as infractions or misdemeanors, but serious violations can be considered felonies.

In most places, moving violations involve fines which must be paid as well as punitive points assessed to the license of the driver. As a driver accumulates points, he or she may be required to attend defensive driving lessons, re-take his or her driving test or even surrender his or her license.

You may think we have it bad in the US, and we do, because traffic fines can go all the way up to $500 and more. But in some countries around the world, traffic can be set according to an individuals income, and in some rare cases be more than $100,000!

More common moving violations can include speeding (THE most common), failure to secure a load, failure to yield right of way, violating high occupancy vehicle lanes, or not stopping for a pedestrian.

Some examples of serious moving violations are drunk driving, racing on a public road, road rage and vehicular homicide.

Also, traffic violations can either be criminal or civil. They both come with fines and points on your record, but a criminal violation is the only one that can get you jail time.

Sentences imposed in criminal cases are obligations owed to the state for violation of their laws. The term state can be applied to cities, towns, state or federal governments or any other kind of municipality. Obviously these are the moving violations you need to avoid at all costs.

Want to find out more about moving violations? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site on how to choose the best traffic defense for your individual needs.

Over 100,000 people a day receive a speeding ticket in this country. That’s over 36,500,000 speeding tickets per year.

One in every 6 drivers will get a speeding ticket this year.

An average speeding ticket will cost you $150.

Almost 5 and one half BILLION dollars a year are generated just from speeding fines. $150 x 36,500,000= $5,475,000,000!

The average raise in insurance costs for one speeding ticket over the course of 3 years is $900.00.

Multiply 900 by 36,500,000 and you get $3,285,000,000 (3.28 BILLION dollars) in extra insurance money the insurance industry makes in a single year just from speeding tickets.

Most people simply pay their speeding tickets instead of fighting it in traffic court. (over 95%!)

Of the 5% of people who do go to traffic court to contest their ticket, a large percentage will either have the charge reduced or the ticket dropped altogether.

There are 196,000,000 licensed drivers in America today.

Immediate grounds for dismissal of a traffic ticket is the officer not showing up to traffic court. This happens 40% of the time.

In 1987 Paradise Valley AZ became the first place to use photo radar.

Brooklyn, Ohio became the first city to mandate seat belts while driving back in 1966.

The demographic that receives more speeding tickets are the 17 to 24 year drivers.

More males than females receive speeding citations.

More women than men fight their speeding tickets in traffic court.

The age of drivers responsible for the most traffic accidents is 17.

In July 1879, two men are fined for speeding horses in Seattle.

Henry Ford’s first automobile in 1894 only went in one direction, forward.

Traffic lights were used before the advent of the motorcar. In 1868, a lantern with red and green signals was used at a London intersection to control the flow of horse buggies and pedestrians.

Since 1999, Washington, D.C. cameras have issued 2,421,841 tickets worth $182 million.

The wife of the Prime Minister of Canada has the first known filed speeding ticket on record. She was busted doing almost a tremendous 10 mph above the posted speed limit.

Doctors receive the most speeding tickets than any other profession.

The average traffic cop will cost a city about $75,000 per year in salary, bonuses, and benefits. This same police officer will make the city an average of $200,000 per year in traffic ticket fines! That’s one hell of a profit margin.

The top 10 states for giving out speeding tickets are:

1. Ohio 2. Pennsylvania 3. New York 4. California 5. Texas 6. Georgia 7. Virginia 8. North Carolina 9. Massachusetts 10. Connecticut

Want to learn about fighting speeding tickets? Then visit Steven Swihart’s site for more information on beating traffic tickets in traffic court.